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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 1443 contributions
|
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 21 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
There were discussions about a number of different things—Ms Don-Innes was involved in that work, too. Certainly, the issue was raised in the context of our consideration of affordability and what would come next.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 21 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
We will consider all statement requests that Mr Rennie puts forward at the appropriate time.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 21 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
I have an answer to that one.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 21 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
I hear Mr Macpherson raise the point about the public finance initiative in our schools, many of which are still having to pay back exorbitant costs associated with school buildings that date back to his party’s time in office.
We will look at the challenges in the round but, while my party has been in office, we have been able to protect capital spending, particularly through our approach to school estate investment. As we have heard from Mr Macpherson, we are looking at substantive ways in which we can transform capital allocation for our college sector. That will not be done in a one-year budget. It will be for the incoming Government to look at the wider challenges that Mr O’Kane speaks to and decide on the approach that it wants to take.
The allocation that we have received this year is a good deal for education and I welcome the uplifts in a number of different areas. I also welcome the fact that stakeholders across the board have welcomed them.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 21 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
I have heard COSLA’s concerns. As I understand it, most of its commentary relates to health and social care. However, in our engagement with local government, I have been clear that education spend needs to be protected. It is at the current time, which is why we enhanced the funding for ASN teacher numbers last year. That is ring fenced and protected for good reason. That is important. There are often debates between local government and the Scottish Government about the protection that is afforded to education, but it is important and it reflects the people’s priorities in Scotland. They want education spend to be protected and enhanced, and that is exactly what we have delivered.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 21 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
I am not going to put words in Mr Bell’s mouth.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 21 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
I hear that.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 21 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
I am an optimistic minister, so I will continue to play my positive role in supporting those important discussions and negotiations, which are in the best interests of democracy and the people whom we represent.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 21 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
The budget continues the funding for the Scottish attainment challenge and, in particular, PEF, which has been transformative, as Mr Adam knows, for our headteachers, who are using it in a variety of ways. I was struck by John Mason’s question about preventative spend and the role of PEF in that space. The funding is now being used, for example, for the employment of family liaison officers, who support attendance at school. In the past, that might have come from other budget lines, but PEF is now being used for that, and we are seeing much more creative ways to support families. Traditionally, the school gate was, in general, quite closed to families, but it is now much more open, and PEF has helped to create more of a community approach to education.
Our learning from PEF will be fundamental in that regard, which is why the work that I spoke to in response to John Mason’s question will be key to informing what comes next. We have given an assurance through the budget that SAC will continue in its current form, in order to reassure local government in relation to its funding. However, we need to evolve comes next, because schools have fundamentally changed. A large part of that shift has come post-pandemic. Schools have turned the way in which they deliver education into something that is often much more community based and involves families. We need to reflect that better in the funding that goes to schools.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 21 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
I am very surprised to hear that, convener. Let me check with my private office. I last looked in my inbox last night, when Mr Macpherson was delivering the stage 3 debate on the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill, and there were four items in my correspondence box, none of which was from that organisation. Let me pick up with officials what has happened, as I am not sighted on that.
