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
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Liam Kerr
Thank you. I have no further questions.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Liam Kerr
Good morning. I will direct my first question to Chris Brodie. The number of green jobs in Scotland has been declining in recent years. Last week, in a response to a parliamentary question that I submitted, I saw that the Scottish Government is considering changing the definition of what constitutes a green job. Has Skills Development Scotland been involved in discussions and planning about that, given the impact on skills development that would presumably occur?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Liam Kerr
Thank you. I would be grateful if you could provide that information later.
Simon Hewitt, on the upskilling and reskilling that Chris Brodie has just talked about, the convener asked earlier on about the training that will be required. In a previous session of Parliament, I sat on the Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee and I seem to recall that the number of college places has been cut significantly in recent years by more than 150,000 places. I also recall reading in January, in one of the newspapers, that colleges were facing a £51.9 million cut in funding.
Simon Hewitt, does that landscape have an impact on our prospects of achieving net zero? If so, is there any sign of the Scottish Government recognising and addressing the need for greater funding and more college places?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Role of Local Government in Delivering Net Zero
Meeting date: 22 March 2022
Liam Kerr
That is a fair point.
My next point is also for you, Robbie, although Pam Ewen and Jane Tennant can come in if they wish to add something. It sounds as if demand for planners will be huge and, as you say, it will be vitally important. Are you aware of what impact local authority funding settlements from the Scottish Government have had on the number of places to train and get skills, and on local authorities’ ability to hire more planners? Do you have any sense yet of what this year’s settlement, which I think the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities said was a £100 million cut to local authority budgets, might have on the number of places to study and local authorities’ ability to hire the planners that they need?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
ScotRail
Meeting date: 15 March 2022
Liam Kerr
I am very grateful for that response and look forward to setting up that meeting, minister.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
ScotRail
Meeting date: 15 March 2022
Liam Kerr
On the point that has just been made, I understand that around 50 per cent of the ScotRail rolling stock is pre-1994. I think that that represents about 500 carriages and all 25 of the high-speed train sets, which I think will be life-expired by 2030. The question then, is this: is there a plan and a timeframe for replacing the pre-1994 sets that fits precisely with the electrification programme and timescales?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
ScotRail
Meeting date: 15 March 2022
Liam Kerr
Earlier, Mr Reeve talked about the procurement of rolling stock and said that the new company might buy electric trains. Can the minister clarify whether the new rolling stock will be leased through rolling stock companies, or will there be a move towards the train sets being owned by the operator? If it is the latter, what is the cost implication?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
ScotRail
Meeting date: 15 March 2022
Liam Kerr
Is there an actual plan? The trains will be life-expired by 2030, so one would have thought that, for the trains that are pre-1994, we need to do the decarbonisation that Ms Hyslop has rightly mentioned. Is there a plan to replace the pre-1994 trains? If not, when will there be one?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
ScotRail
Meeting date: 15 March 2022
Liam Kerr
I note that, in The Scotsman on 4 March, Alex Hynes was reported as saying that ScotRail’s budget had yet to be fixed. Has that been done now?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
ScotRail
Meeting date: 15 March 2022
Liam Kerr
I just want to ask one more question. Right back at the start of the meeting, minister, the convener asked you an important question about what nationalising the railway would bring, but I am not sure that I understood your answer. It seemed to involve relations with the trade unions, consideration of service cuts and consulting on ticket office cuts as well as other consultations, and you finished by saying that the important thing was to ensure that we met passenger need in the best way and that public ownership would allow you to do that.
That is the part that I did not quite understand. After 1 April, we will have the same people, the same rolling stock, the same leasing arrangements in the short term and the same network at a cost of £3.6 million, but with potentially fewer ticket offices and services. Monica Lennon asked about the no compulsory redundancy policy, and you talked about a possible fares increase. What can a nationalised rail company do that the previous operator could not?
