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 1893 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Monica Lennon
It is a discussion for this committee.
I will pick up on the disposal of unsold goods. Can you talk us through what the risks and opportunities are for consumers and business of introducing restrictions on disposal of unsold goods? Have you looked at examples from other countries, such as redistribution schemes for food or other goods, to understand the impacts?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Monica Lennon
That is helpful, and it is good to hear about the proposal to put a moratorium on incineration.
We have the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill, and we obviously want to see a reduction in consumption overall. If some existing facilities become less viable and feasible as businesses opportunities and start to close down or decommission early, will that have an impact on your targets?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Water Industry
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Monica Lennon
A yes or no might be the ultimate answer, but there might be nothing to add, because the jury is still out.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Monica Lennon
In order to achieve a just transition for consumers, would you suggest any other changes to the bill?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Monica Lennon
Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Monica Lennon
Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Water Industry
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Monica Lennon
Jackie Dunbar’s initial questions touched on general performance and the public’s general perception of Scottish Water. I want to ask about the perception around sewage pollution, which is an issue that we raised with Scottish Water last week. That is an area of concern to communities and environmental groups. I am keen to hear from the panel what impact the local concerns and media reports are having on consumer perceptions and, importantly, trust in Scottish Water. I will start with Consumer Scotland.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Water Industry
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Monica Lennon
It would be good to hear more about the research. I am sure that you will not want to get into specific community examples. However, in some of the emails and letters that we get, people are very concerned about the impact of sewage on human health, nature and the environment. We have heard from Scottish Water that it does not accept how things are being characterised in the media and by some consumers and community interest groups. Is there a gap in the research and, if so, how can we address that? If there is a division between Scottish Water saying that it does not recognise those concerns and people getting increasingly vocal, how could we resolve that? I will put that to Fraser Stewart.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Water Industry
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Monica Lennon
Thank you. That is really informative. What is Alan Sutherland’s perspective on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Water Industry
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Monica Lennon
Thank you for very eloquently taking us through some of the big challenges and possible solutions. I will not go into that too much, because I know that we do not have time to do so.
To go back to Scottish Water, notwithstanding some of the wider challenges, which are not all within Scottish Water’s control, we have a potentially growing problem around CSOs and people are concerned about human waste ending up in our watercourses and the impact of that on public health and the environment. Scottish Water is saying that it is not getting its lawyers on to the media, and I asked it about that last week. I asked whether the stories are so wildly exaggerated that it is going to get its lawyers involved, but it is not doing that. We do not want to have a breakdown in public trust and confidence.
As good as it is to have all the research, I am sure that the team at Consumer Scotland has other things that it would prefer to be researching. What advice would you give to Scottish Water on speaking to communities and doing that education work, and ultimately doing better because we need better outcomes?
10:45