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 2492 contributions
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Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Mairi Gougeon
I talked about the rural housing action plan that we will bring forward, but I am happy to consider that issue and look into it further.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Mairi Gougeon
I was simply asked whether I would be appearing virtually. It is not at all that I do not think it important. This is the first meeting and the first engagement of many that I will have with the committee. I look forward to working with committee members and will, no doubt, meet you in person.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Mairi Gougeon
Yes, of course.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Mairi Gougeon
On your first point about the 3-mile limit, we have not agreed to nor adopted such a policy because we do not agree with taking a blanket approach, given how different and variable the coastline of Scotland is. A tailored approach is seen to be a lot more effective and beneficial.
The work that we have done through the future fisheries management strategy, with the regional inshore fisheries groups, looking at where local management can work, has been vital in helping to inform how we move forward and how we handle some of the issues that you outlined. So far, we have taken an approach of engagement and consultation, looking at the different environments surrounding coastal communities in Scotland. That approach makes sense, and we fully intend to continue with it.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Mairi Gougeon
It is not solely an islands affair, but ferries fall within the remit of the transport minister, so, if the committee was looking to do any specific pieces of work on that, he would be best placed to respond to that.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Mairi Gougeon
I am really sorry but I missed the first part of your question about the task force and what you were asking for.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Mairi Gougeon
As I mentioned, I was previously a minister who worked between two cabinet secretaries. In that situation, you do not work in isolation, especially when the issues concern various aspects across wider portfolios, so there will be close working on that. We also have a responsibility to ensure that, as we develop proposals for legislation, we engage with all the stakeholders and people who will be affected by it. I did that in my previous role and I do it now. It is critical for any legislation that there is open consultation so that we get the necessary feedback on the proposals to help us to shape the legislation and frame it in the best possible way.
That work will be undertaken in the process of developing the legislation that the member refers to. There is always a lead minister or cabinet secretary to take forward various bits of legislation, depending on where it falls in the portfolio. As I mentioned, that piece of legislation falls within the portfolio of the Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform, who will take the lead on that.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Mairi Gougeon
The food and drink recovery plan has been funded with £5 million in 2020-21 and another £5 million in 2021-22. There are 50 actions in the plan. I would be happy to write to the committee to provide more information about those actions and some of the work that has been done.
The regional food fund, which I launched in Shetland in the summer, is one project that has been delivered through the plan. The fund, which seeks to showcase and develop new markets for our food and drink, received a positive welcome. We have the best produce anywhere in the world, and it is important to highlight and showcase that and to do what we can to develop markets, especially in the light of some of the challenges that we have faced recently. We have also provided £1.8 million to Seafood Scotland and, last month, we announced a food processing, marketing and co-operation grant of £7.3 million. All of that is intended to keep our food and drink businesses resilient and to help them with some of the issues that they face.
You asked about sustainably Scottish. We produce sustainably. Scotland has a lot to show off about when it comes to our food and drink, and a sustainably Scottish brand would capitalise on that. We are in the early stages of that work. We will be working closely with Scotland Food & Drink to help to develop proposals for that and to see how we can drive it forward. It is important that we highlight Scottish produce and capitalise on the fact that it is sustainably produced.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Mairi Gougeon
We will be working with Scotland Food & Drink and other organisations to capture all of that and tie everything together.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Mairi Gougeon
Yes, the approach will be different from what is being pursued across the rest of the UK, particularly in England, where direct payments will be phased out and removed, and more of an outcomes-based approach will be looked at. We could start to see issues in the light of what is happening in relation to the internal market act, subsidy control and what is being brought in to replace state aid. That is a big concern for us. We are not 100 per cent clear yet about how that will impact on our ability to take a different policy course from what is being pursued elsewhere.
We specifically asked for agriculture not to be included in subsidy control. The results of the consultation in relation to that were shared with us. That could well constrain us, and we are not yet 100 per cent clear about what the full impacts of that would be.
In the meantime, it is important for us to set our own agriculture policy for Scotland. We have a land type that is very different from that of the rest of the UK, which is why it is important that we have the ability to set our own policy and a framework for payments that works for farmers and land managers in Scotland.
