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 1076 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jenny Gilruth
I am meeting the Scottish Funding Council later today, along with Mr Dey. I was somewhat surprised by the correspondence that the committee received in relation to that number, which had not been shared with ministers in advance. I recognise the concern, and I share that concern very much.
The committee is aware, as we have stated this publicly, that there has been no further financial ask of Government beyond the £22 million of liquidity, which has been met. However, Mr Dey and I have been very clear that we are open to additional asks from the university, under the auspices of the SFC, recognising the legal need for that in this space.
We have also been very clear that, although it is not palatable to ministers, that is the number that we expect. However, the university said in evidence to the committee two or three weeks ago that it was looking at alternatives. We have not yet been presented with those alternatives. I expect them to be presented to the SFC in the coming weeks, and I would be more than happy to, and I expect to, give an update to the committee on that.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jenny Gilruth
No. The university was engaging with the SFC, because it had to engage directly with the SFC rather than the Government. The engagement was undertaken with the SFC.
On 14 February, the university requested urgent liquidity support from the SFC and on 19 February the SFC notified the Scottish Government. On 25 February, we provided the extra £15 million more broadly and on 6 March the SFC received the draft copy of the FRP, which, on 7 March, was sent to the Scottish Government. That draft included details of the proposed reduction in the number of staff. That is the chronology. The £15 million was made available and, at a later date, we found out the actual number of job losses and met the asks in relation to the £22 million of liquidity support.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jenny Gilruth
The Parliament also voted for a budget that committed the Government to expanding free school meals to those in receipt of the Scottish child payment. The regulations will allow us to move at pace on that commitment, which was set out in the budget. I recognise that your party did not vote for the budget—
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jenny Gilruth
Sorry, Mr Ross, but you completed your question and now you are talking across me.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jenny Gilruth
Have you completed your question?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jenny Gilruth
I do not agree with that assertion. Targeting the expansion of free school meals at those receiving the Scottish child payment was agreed to in advance of the next stage of the universal roll-out. Therefore, the SSI does not preclude the Government from meeting its ultimate aspiration, which is to deliver universality. If anything, it compels the Government to deliver on—
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jenny Gilruth
I do not have the email chain in front of me—I think that Mr Rennie’s point was informed by that chain, as well as perhaps the report in The Courier. Without seeing that, I am not sure that there was a suggestion in it to cut the figure per se. I think that there was a negotiation between the SFC and the Government—this is just my memory, so I will have to check back, convener—to assess what was required at that moment to assist the university.
I appreciate that some of those emails have been released and that some of them are redacted, which does not help to shed light on the issue—I accept that. However, I can say that there was a communication between the SFC and the Government at that time, during the budget process, to move at pace to provide that extra funding. That was provided, and then there was the £22 million liquidity request. I do not necessarily accept that there was a decision to reduce the amount. From memory, this would have been advice that was given to ministers by the SFC at that time.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jenny Gilruth
I am more than happy to do that. I accept the committee’s on-going interest in this issue and I very much share it. I am happy to share as much as I am able to with the committee. We will meet the SFC later today, and if I can shed further light on our engagement with the SFC and the next steps, I will do so. Timescales are important here and we need to move at pace. I am happy to provide that information in writing to the committee.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jenny Gilruth
You did.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 2 April 2025
Jenny Gilruth
The modelling that I have is two years old and puts the estimated cost at £256 million. I am more than happy to engage with political parties on how we deliver universality, but members well know, as we have discussed and debated at length, that that will not be during this session of Parliament because of the costs associated with the roll-out. However, the Government has taken the decision to work on a cross-party basis on the deliverability of the roll-out for children in receipt of the Scottish child payment. Today’s SSI will allow us to move forward at pace on that and will allow more families to obtain access to free school meals provision, which I think is a good thing for families and children in Scotland.
