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 1306 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
In relation to accreditation, as far as I am aware, that is being taken forward by Qualifications Scotland. I met Shirley Rogers recently, towards the end of last year, and will meet her again next week along with Nick Page, the new chief executive. I would be more than happy to write to the committee with more detail in relation to accreditation following my meeting with Shirley Rogers and Nick Page, because we discussed that issue at length with the committee during stage 2 amendments and in the chamber during stage 3.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
I think that we had a routine engagement to catch up on a number of different areas, including the points that Mr Rennie raised this morning in relation to accreditation. I do not recall the discussion taking place in the kind of forum that you suggest. It would not be usual for me to seek a meeting with the chief executive on the back of a press interview. We have regular catch-ups. We had a regular catch-up on those issues, and we discussed them in the round.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
I understand that those are also being taken forward. Jaxon Parish might want to speak about the work that officials have been supporting.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
Forgive me, convener, but which legislation would that be?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
Happy new year to you, convener, and to committee members.
Thank you for inviting me to discuss the draft Official Statistics (Scotland) Amendment Order 2026 and the draft Education (Scotland) Act 2025 (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2026. The two instruments are being considered together as they are both, in effect, required as a consequence of implementing the Education (Scotland) Act 2025. The instruments, alongside a wider package of secondary legislation, will ensure that Qualifications Scotland and the chief inspector for education in Scotland can take on the relevant functions, duties and responsibilities of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education.
The Official Statistics (Scotland) Amendment Order 2026, if approved, will make changes to the Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008. The 2008 order provides that
“Wholly Scottish devolved statistics produced ... by the persons listed in the Schedule are specified as official statistics for the purposes of ... the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.”
Listed persons are bound by the code of practice for official statistics and how they are published. Put simply, in the schedule to the 2008 order, the instrument will replace the SQA with Qualifications Scotland as a producer of official statistics.
The Education (Scotland) Act 2025 (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2026, if approved, will update the Budget (Scotland) Act 2025, as well as provisions in legislation that were inserted by the recent Scottish Languages Act 2025. For the budget act updates, the instrument will add references to Qualifications Scotland and to the office of His Majesty’s chief inspector of education in Scotland as regards the education and skills portfolio. The Scottish statutory instrument will ensure that they can be funded by the Scottish ministers during this budget year. For the provisions made in the Scottish Languages Act 2025, the SSI will replace all references to the SQA and to HM inspector of schools with references to Qualifications Scotland and to the chief inspector, ensuring that the recently agreed provisions in the Scottish Languages Act 2025 will work, or continue working, as originally intended.
I commend the order to the committee and am happy to answer any questions.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
We can take the general point away. A couple of issues have come up today that I will write to the committee about. If we can loop the point into our response, I am more than happy to reassure you about our approach.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
The Government always listens to concerns that are raised by stakeholders. The general point is that ministers are not able to take forward bills that are not compliant with the UNCRC in general terms. I am sure that, in relation to the specifics of the Promise bill, the minister will be listening to and engaging with stakeholders. I know that she will appear before the committee following my evidence session today, so you might want to pursue those matters with her directly, given my recusal from discussion of that bill overall.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
Yes, that is very much the intention. We discussed that matter of accreditation with the committee, along with the fact that a number of qualifications—not least national qualifications that are often delivered in schools—are not accredited at present. I reassure Willie Rennie that that issue is being taken forward by Qualifications Scotland. However, I will raise those matters again with Shirley Rogers and Nick Page when I meet them in the coming days, and I commit to writing to the committee with further details following that meeting, to provide reassurance on those points. They were heard very clearly by me at the time and were a key component of the bill as it was passed.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
It is always difficult to make generalisations about cohorts. If you teach cohorts of young people, you see attainment fluctuate from year to year. The exam results depend on the class, the individual pupils and, ultimately, their performance on the day. It is difficult to have that read-across and to predict how a cohort will perform.
It is fair to say that, in this year’s exam results, we saw a dramatic improvement in attainment in history and across the board. That is to be welcomed. If there were issues in relation to the subject qualification itself, the SQA would have considered that in relation to the pass mark. I would be more than happy to come back to the committee on that, but, from my memory—I do not have the detail in front of me today, because it is not directly relevant to the SSIs that we are discussing—I do not think that changes were made in relation to the overall pass mark last year. I will clarify that point with my officials after the committee meeting, but, to my mind, that would suggest that there were no issues.
Of course, I always meet the SQA in advance of the qualifications results day, and we spend a lot of time going through the results and looking at individual subjects. In 2025, we spent a bit of time going through the higher history course qualification results, for exactly the reasons that you mention, convener, and no concerns were raised by the SQA at that time in relation to the approaches that were taken.
We have seen an improvement in attainment, which is to be welcomed. I accept the points that you have made today, but all that I would say is that no information from the SQA has been shared on that issue. However, if higher history teachers or markers have any concerns, I am always happy to hear from them, and I would encourage them to engage directly with Qualifications Scotland.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 7 January 2026
Jenny Gilruth
You alluded to Cabinet conversations, convener, and I have to again put on the record, as you have already noted, the fact that I am recused from discussions concerning the Promise because my wife sits on the Promise oversight board. I am not privy to those conversations and I do not sit at the Cabinet table for discussions that pertain to the Promise.
My general comment—I will defer to Judith Brown on this—is that ministers have to ensure that all legislation that we introduce is compliant with the UNCRC. I can give you only a general view on that, because I cannot give specifics on the Promise bill for the reasons that I have set out. Judith Brown might want to say more in terms of the UNCRC and our engagement in relation to that piece of legislation.
