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 成人快手 and committees will automatically update to show only the 成人快手 and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of 成人快手 and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of 成人快手 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 1517 contributions
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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Asylum Seekers in Scotland
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Maggie Chapman
I have other questions, but I am conscious of time.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
I appreciate that it is early days.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
Beyond grid.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
That would be very helpful.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
Absolutely.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
One of the key arguments for not seeing resilience as a nice add-on at the end of the process is that it might do away with the need to address some of the other issues that we have been talking about. Having islands or rural communities that are self-sufficient in energy terms means that we do not need to worry about some of the broader issues around transmission and distribution, because it is all right there. I am not necessarily seeing that kind of strategic thinking about off-grid鈥攖hat might be the wrong phrase; perhaps I should say 鈥渂eyond-grid鈥濃攕upply, distribution, transmission and use.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
I am not trying to be awkward. Others round the table might think that I am鈥攊t is just my nature.
One of the key challenges about which we have talked, about which the committee has heard and about which we hear often is problems with the resilience of grid connections. You will be familiar with some of the resilience issues and failures during storm Arwen and other similar events. What are the opportunities in the body of work that we are talking about, whether legislation or reviews, to think outside the box鈥攐r beyond the grid鈥攕o that we can have local, community-owned, resilient energy supplies that are not dependent on infrastructure that might be several tens of miles away or controlled several hundreds of miles away? How do we build resilience into an energy system鈥攊n particular, the electricity system鈥攖hat is not only net zero but fit for the future and is not subject to grid failures?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
Thank you for that.
Jeremy Allen, you mentioned two avenues: the regulatory frameworks and the consultations. There are opportunities for communities to respond to and influence consultations. Does either of you see any likelihood of a need to adjust the regulatory frameworks? If so, in what directions should they be adjusted?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
Thank you very much, convener, and thank you for letting me come to this afternoon鈥檚 meeting. Good afternoon to the panel and thank you for being here.
I appreciate what Andrew Bowie has already said about the UK Energy Bill that is going through Parliament and the several reviews that are on-going and have yet to report. I know that the timescales are various and things are forthcoming, so there will be some limit to what you can say in some of your answers to these questions.
You referenced the Scottish Government鈥檚 draft energy strategy and just transition plan. You will be aware of the very clear commitment to maximising community benefit within that, in relation not only to renewable energy developments but also鈥攁s we have heard鈥攖o localising transmission and distribution, connectivity, shared ownership and all of that. Given what you have already said this afternoon, and following on from Fiona Hyslop鈥檚 questions around the FSO, how do you see the FSO鈥檚 role in facilitating those kinds of community benefits in a material way, particularly for rural communities?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
Good morning, and thank you for joining us.
I was going to bring up our place-based town centre inquiry, because I think that there is something about seeing a place as a whole and as more than just somewhere where all the various sectors come together. Therefore, I do not underestimate the challenge that Catriona Laing has just talked about with regard to bringing the sectoral plans into sharp relief.
10:15I want to follow up on some of the points that Fiona Hyslop made about community engagement and co-design work. I appreciate what has been said on co-design and engagement with the just transition commission, but communities and workers should be included in that co-design process in a meaningful way that does not just channel those views through the just transition commission, where people might think that they would get a little lost. I urge the Scottish Government to think about co-leadership and co-ownership of different elements of the plans and of our delivery and implementation approaches.
That is particularly important for the long term, cabinet secretary. You said very clearly that you are not thinking in short-term chunks of time. If the community and the workers own the process, they will be invested in it and will make it work for 2045. Rather than just involving them in the process, we should give them ownership of that process. That represents a different approach. It is scary, because the Government does not do that often or regularly, but it is really important that that happens.
From that, we will get questions about not only transport and housing, which Fiona Hyslop has highlighted, but the other infrastructure needs of the local area, such as the flood prevention plan and other environmental infrastructure needs. How will the plan be able to take account of those issues that do not relate directly to the energy issues or the chemical industries of Grangemouth, but which relate to the community more broadly?
