Official Report: search what was said in Parliament
The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
The Official Report search offers lots of different ways to find the information you’re looking for. The search is used as a professional tool by researchers and third-party organisations. It is also used by members of the public who may have less parliamentary awareness. This means it needs to provide the ability to run complex searches, and the ability to browse reports or perform a simple keyword search.
Searching by different views
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
- Report: this is the whole Official Report for a particular meeting of a committee or Parliament
- Item of business: this is each individual agenda item in an Official Report. For example, Portfolio Questions would be the item of business in a Meeting of the Parliament report
- Contribution: this is each time someone has made a spoken contribution to a meeting.
Depending on the kind of search you want to do, one of these views will be the best option. The default view is to show the report for each meeting of Parliament or a committee. For a simple keyword search, the results will be shown by item of business.
Search by MSP
When you choose to search by a particular MSP, the results returned will show each spoken contribution in Parliament or a committee, ordered by date with the most recent contributions first. This will usually return a lot of results, but you can refine your search by keyword, date and/or by meeting (committee or Chamber business).
We’ve chosen to display the entirety of each MSP’s contribution in the search results. This is intended to reduce the number of times that users need to click into an actual report to get the information that they’re looking for, but in some cases it can lead to very short contributions (“Yes.”) or very long ones (Ministerial statements, for example.) We’ll keep this under review and get feedback from users on whether this approach best meets their needs.
Searching by keyword
There are two types of keyword search:
- A keyword search without quotation marks will look for every instance of each word used and rank the results by frequency and proximity. It will also include variants of the keywords using “porter stemming”. This is when the search looks for the “stem” of a word regardless of its ending. So, for example, a search for [salmon farm] will return each instance of “salmon” and each instance of “farm” as well as potentially including results for “farms”, “farmed” and “farming”.
- A keyword search with quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase used. So, for example, a search for “salmon farm” in quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase.
Combining search filters
If you select an MSP’s name from the dropdown menu, and add a phrase in quotation marks to the keyword field, then the search will return only examples of when the MSP said those exact words. You can further refine this search by adding a date range or selecting a particular committee or Meeting of the Parliament.
More complex keyword searches
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
- a search for “salmon farm” AND “Loch Lomond” will return only results which include both exact phrases
- a search for “salmon farm” NOT “Loch Lomond” will return results for “salmon farm” but exclude results which also include “Loch Lomond”
- a search for “salmon farm” OR “Loch Lomond” will return all results for “salmon farm” and all results for “Loch Lomond” regardless of whether they appear together
Searching by date
There are two ways of searching by date.
You can either use the Start date and End date options to run a search across a particular date range. For example, you may know that a particular subject was discussed at some point in the last few weeks and choose a date range to reflect that.
Alternatively, you can use one of the pre-defined date ranges under “Select a time period”. These are:
- Current session (all Official Reports since the current sessions started)
- Last 6 months
- Last 12 months
- each of the previous sessions of Parliament. (Selecting the information icon above the “Select a time period” menu will give you the exact dates for each session.)
- All sessions
- You can also choose to select a custom date range, although adding a Start or End date will mean the search automatically defaults to this option.
If you search by an individual session, the list of MSPs and committees will automatically update to show only the MSPs and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of MSPs and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of MSPs and committees will update to show the information that was current at that time.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
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Displaying 1571 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Energy Price Rises
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Monica Lennon
Good morning, cabinet secretary. As well as supporting a windfall tax on oil and gas producer profits, do you agree that the UK Government needs to introduce an emergency budget? Also, is the Scottish Government considering an emergency budget of its own to ensure that the cost of living crisis and energy costs are being treated with the right level of priority in Scotland?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Monica Lennon
Does Roger Curtis want to add anything on technical expertise in local authorities?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Monica Lennon
That is interesting. What did you mean when you talked about resources? Are there not enough resources to meet the demand for training places?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Monica Lennon
In the interests of time, I will move on to my next question, which relates to the issue of multiyear funding. Teresa Bray, earlier, you talked about the fact that the current approach, which uses annual settlements, makes it hard to plan ahead. Would you recommend that there should be multiyear funding models for local government?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Monica Lennon
Thank you. That is really helpful.
I have not heard from Elaine Waterson so, before I pass back to the convener, I will ask her if she has anything to add.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Monica Lennon
Thank you, Professor Webb. According to my notes, you said that there is a lack of technical expertise in local authorities and that there needs to be more in-house technical proficiency. The committee hopes to make recommendations to the Scottish Government and to local government. What action do you recommend to address the technical expertise challenge that you have mentioned?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Energy Price Rises
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Monica Lennon
Does that mean that you have not had a response, or has the UK Government declined the offer?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Energy Price Rises
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Monica Lennon
Again, it would be helpful for the committee to see any relevant correspondence, because we want to make our own recommendations.
I have one last question—in fact, two quick last questions. You talked about taking “bold action”. Is a publicly owned energy company something that you are keeping under review? I know that that was previously a commitment from the Scottish National Party and—I think—from the Scottish Greens. Is that being looked at as part of the Bute house agreement?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Energy Price Rises
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Monica Lennon
I have no doubt that we will come back to the role of the agency and what more can be done on public ownership.
My last question is on a very topical issue. I think that a decision on this is expected soon, but should the UK Government regulator give consent to the proposed Jackdaw oil field? The Scottish Government is opposed to the Cambo oil field. Does it also oppose consent for Jackdaw?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 11 May 2022
Monica Lennon
I thank committee members for their work on the bill so far. Amendment 75 would ensure that, during the preparation of the national good food nation plan, children and young people were consulted on the provision of free school meals. Successive Governments in Scotland have established good practice in engaging with children and young people, and that should be at the heart of our ambition and plan to become a good food nation.
Section 3 states that
“the Scottish Ministers must have regard to the international instruments listed in subsection (2)”,
and it goes on to reference the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Including consultation with children and young people in the bill would provide clarity, and I hope that members agree that amendment 75 is important and helpful.
Section 7 covers requirements on public bodies—including health boards and local authorities, as members know—to publish good food nation plans. Section 8 deals with the consultation arrangements for such bodies, and my amendment 80 replicates my amendment 75 in proposing to put consultation with children and young people in the bill. That could include current schemes in education and any plans that the Government has on free school meals policy or legislation. That is all that I want to say on those amendments.
