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 1112 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
COP15 Outcomes
Meeting date: 7 March 2023
Liam Kerr
The worry seems to be that there could be a degree of complacency.
Colin Galbraith, you said earlier that the world looks to Scotland and that we show the world what we are doing. I found that quite surprising, given that Scotland failed to meet the Aichi targets that were mentioned earlier. I think that we met nine of the 20 targets and the ones that were met were not quite the key ones—that is perhaps just my personal view. On that note, the GBF talks about increasing the ambition on finance for biodiversity, and target 19 talks about scaling up finance for biodiversity. We have just had a budget. Colin Galbraith, has that target been met?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
COP15 Outcomes
Meeting date: 7 March 2023
Liam Kerr
Thank you. I will make this the last question for just now. Daniela Diz, are there any priorities or targets that the committee needs to be particularly aware of and that we need to say are key targets that we need to prioritise? Are there any targets that will be particularly difficult to achieve that the committee needs to focus on?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
COP15 Outcomes
Meeting date: 7 March 2023
Liam Kerr
Good morning. Dr Mitchell, you talked about implementation of the COP15 outcomes and translating those into SMART targets—that is, targets that are specific, achievable, time bound and so on. You also talked about funding and monitoring. Do the new biodiversity strategy and delivery plan align to the GBF targets and the items that you have spoken about? How translatable are the targets from COP15 into domestic Scottish policy?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
COP15 Outcomes
Meeting date: 7 March 2023
Liam Kerr
My next question is for Deborah Long. We have only seven years, and Dr Mitchell has said that more must be done and that we need to get the plan together. Have we really got time?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
COP15 Outcomes
Meeting date: 7 March 2023
Liam Kerr
I am very grateful. Unless anyone else wants to respond to that question, I will hand back to the convener.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 28 February 2023
Liam Kerr
I was interested in Mark Ruskell’s questions, in response to which you said that there will be an examination of how the scheme is operating. Can you reassure me that that will also examine the uptake and usage of the scheme in rural areas, as distinct from urban areas, and particularly in areas where bus provision is more patchy and/or where there is rural poverty, so that we can ensure that the scheme is operating fairly and equitably across the whole country?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 February 2023
Liam Kerr
So—
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 February 2023
Liam Kerr
Good morning. Before I come to a substantive question, as the convener asked about procurement, there is an issue that I wondered whether Kevin Hobbs might help me with. I put in a question to the Minister for Transport in January, which was answered somewhat cryptically, and I wondered whether I could get a clear answer from you.
I asked whether there were clauses in the contract with Cemre in Turkey for the two ferries to serve the Islay route that stipulated that Scottish, UK or other European businesses should form part of the supply chain, where possible. Were there any such clauses in the contract?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 February 2023
Liam Kerr
I understand. Thank you very much.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Ferry Services Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 February 2023
Liam Kerr
I have a brief preliminary question for Kevin Hobbs, because I did not quite understand something that the chair said earlier. In her opening remarks, she said that the operator dictates the specification of the vessels. However, we have a press release from CMAL that says that it is considering a catamaran for a particular route, and the chair said earlier that you are looking at alternative tonnage. What is the reality? Will you explain who dictates what vessels look like and which vessels are ordered?
