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 2085 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 23 December 2021
Monica Lennon
I thank the First Minister for her response. Paul Harley from Coatbridge has been missing since 2014, but there has been a potential sighting of him and, in today’s Daily Record, his son Paul has sent the message to his dad that, “It’s never too late to come home”.
It is important that the missing and their loved ones are supported. The charity Missing People is working hard to reunite more families this Christmas. Will the First Minister help to get the message out that the charity’s trained helpline staff can be reached by a call or text on 116 000? Will the Scottish Government do everything that it can to support the charity’s mission, which is for every missing child and adult and every loved one left behind to find help, hope and a safe way to reconnect?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 23 December 2021
Monica Lennon
To ask the First Minister how many missing person investigations have been carried out in 2021. (S6F-00633)
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Water Environment
Meeting date: 22 December 2021
Monica Lennon
I welcome the statement, because constituents in my region are very concerned about the environmental and health impacts that are being discussed. Almost 17 million cubic metres of sewage was pumped into Hamilton waste water treatment works alone between 2016 and 2020, so it is a big concern locally. I have asked the minister this before and she was asked again by a colleague today: will she agree to bring in binding targets?
Wet wipes were mentioned in relation to plastic pollution, but will she commit to bringing in a ban on plastic-based wet wipes in the near future?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee (Annual Progress Report)
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Monica Lennon
Thank you, Professor Bell. We are making everyone hungry, and it is almost lunch time. As someone who has been a vegetarian for almost 30 years, I can say that it is a lot easier to be a veggie now, but I have not gone fully vegan.
It is very interesting to see some of the recommendations for the Climate Assembly from the Children’s Parliament. There is a shift there. Can you say more about what the Scottish Government should and could do to have a more integrated approach to land use, agriculture and forestry? Also, if you have had a look at the draft national planning framework 4, which is out for consultation, do you think that there are opportunities that are not being fully realised in that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee (Annual Progress Report)
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Monica Lennon
Thank you both. Chris, I hope that your wife is on the mend soon. I send my best wishes to all of you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee (Annual Progress Report)
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Monica Lennon
We heard from Chris Stark that the area that is giving him the most concern in relation to reduction of emissions is agriculture, and we know that the CCC has persistently raised concerns about the Scottish Government’s agriculture policy. I think that I see some lovely cookbooks on the shelves behind you, Chris, and I have a question about food and diet.
The CCC pathway requires a 20 per cent reduction in the consumption of meat and dairy by the end of the decade. So far, however, the Scottish Government has not made any commitment to reduce meat and dairy consumption at that level, but it might work nicely as a new year’s resolution. What action would you like the Government to take in 2022? What about the people in Scotland—what should we be doing?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Climate Change Committee (Annual Progress Report)
Meeting date: 21 December 2021
Monica Lennon
Thank you. That has been really clear and helpful.
We are running out of time, so I will squeeze in one final question. The CCC has said that the Scottish Government already has many of the levers. We know that the Scottish Government is a fan of the four-day working week, which the citizens climate assembly recommended, and there is a £10 million fund for pilot schemes on that idea. What is the Climate Change Committee’s view of the four-day working week’s contribution to our journey to net zero? Is it positive? How should that £10 million be used to demonstrate that the four-day working week could be a game changer?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage
Meeting date: 14 December 2021
Monica Lennon
Good morning. Some of the biggest supporters of carbon capture, utilisation and storage also support developing new oilfields such as Cambo and maximising the economic recovery of oil and gas. How do you respond to people’s concerns that reliance on the fossil fuel industry for carbon management will delay the just transition away from those fuels?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage
Meeting date: 14 December 2021
Monica Lennon
Thank you. That is a helpful answer.
We are running out of time, so I ask Erik Dalhuijsen to respond briefly to the question that I asked Stuart Haszeldine and to the points that he made.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage
Meeting date: 14 December 2021
Monica Lennon
I could ask lots more questions, but there is not a lot of time. How reliant is the business model on continuing the policy of maximising the economic recovery of oil and gas? Does it rely on projects such as Cambo coming on stream? I am asking partly because the public are not fully convinced that CCS is the right climate solution, especially when they hear that some of its main supporters also want new oil fields such as Cambo. How do we address those concerns for people who are not fully convinced and who feel that there are mixed messages and, perhaps, vested interests? As Colin Pritchard is on the screen, I will ask him first and then come back to the other witnesses.
