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 2063 contributions
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Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Rachael Hamilton
Yes.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Rachael Hamilton
I thank the minister for his intervention. I will make this brief—I have one last comment in winding up.
I go back to the Werritty review, which recommended that a licensing scheme be introduced specifically for grouse shooting. Now we find ourselves in a position whereby people are going to be liable for an area in which there are no red grouse. The law, as it stood before, was clear: it was about grouse moors. That is what Werritty intended.
I press amendment 35B.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Rachael Hamilton
You replied to my written question on the matter on 27 August. I had asked whether the Scottish Government had
“assessed how effective current legislation is regarding the management of seagulls in relation to any public health and safety concerns.”
It is a function that the Government gives to NatureScot to deliver, which is the reason why licences are issued. The reply that I received from your office said:
“The Scottish Government has not formally assessed how effective current legislation is regarding the management of gulls in relation to any public health and safety concerns.”—[Written Answers, 27 August 2025; S6W-29097.]
Douglas Ross and I lodged our amendments because, if the Government does not know how the management of gulls is being delivered through a health and safety lens, how can businesses or anyone else understand that, unless we make changes?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Rachael Hamilton
I have some sympathy for Beatrice Wishart’s amendment, because it would give land managers a little more latitude and flexibility. Currently, if NatureScot is denying those licences because they include a certain amount of peatland, it is not considering the other elements, such as the protection of woodland. I think that the minister is well aware of that situation, which is limiting and could cause more damage to biodiversity.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Rachael Hamilton
I am not hugely confident that we will get anywhere by my not pursuing my amendments to amendment 32. However, Mark Ruskell has said that he wishes to withdraw amendment 32. It is only fair to work collegiately on this matter, as we are all agreed about the trajectory that we are on. The sector needs a little bit more time.
I am the convener of the cross-party group on gardening and horticulture, and I would not be doing my job if I had not responded to amendment 32. I will not press my amendments to that amendment, but I put it on the record that I want the minister, Jim Fairlie, to commit to working with Mark Ruskell and me on the matter.
Amendment 32A, by agreement, withdrawn.
Amendments 32B to A32H not moved.
Amendment 32, by agreement, withdrawn.
Amendment 40 not moved.
Amendment 41 moved—[Mark Ruskell].
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Rachael Hamilton
On the basis of what the cabinet secretary said, I will not move it.
Amendments 254 and 255 not moved.
Amendment 333 moved—[Tim Eagle].
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Rachael Hamilton
The changes were also made by NatureScot to tackle raptor persecution. Those changes were made after the 2024 act. The act was robustly debated by this committee. We consulted stakeholders and received evidence; there was a robust debate. However, NatureScot went on to produce the licensing conditions and changed a number of them. I am concerned that the minister has stated that trust has to be built up, when the trust is there. There is zero evidence to suggest that, because a different land boundary has been drawn, licences have been revoked. Not one licence has been revoked. Following the changes that NatureScot made to the licensing conditions, perhaps the licences were refused because they changed the scope of the licence.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Rachael Hamilton
Northern Ireland has devolved powers. Why do you think that Northern Ireland has set a date without waiting for work to be done with the UK Government to resolve the internal market issues?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Rachael Hamilton
Amendment 35 is more stick than carrot, because it states that, if the landowner and the applicant disagree with NatureScot on the specification of the land, the licence is revoked. Therefore, there is no chance for the individual to potentially disagree, particularly where there are sporting rights that are shared among multiple individuals.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 December 2025
Rachael Hamilton
Minister, I am not sure whether you are speaking to Mark Ruskell’s amendment, because my amendments look to align with the rest of the UK through the UKIMA. I have read the responses to the 2023 consultation and, in a way, the minister has cherry-picked the parts of the consultation that he wanted to talk about.
To back up my amendments, many individuals and organisations in the horticultural sector were concerned, including 57 per cent of people who said they were very concerned about a peat ban. They raised issues such as increased costs, disruption to the supply chain, productivity issues and the unsuitability of a peat-free version of peat for specifics such as growing potatoes and so on. Although the minister is reassuring me that the process is on-going and that we have to wait for the UK to introduce its ban, what is the Government doing to speak specifically to expert horticultural voices?
