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 łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees will automatically update to show only the łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of łÉČËżěĘÖ 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 617 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Sarah Boyack
Okay—that is good. I will feed that back.
The issue that I was raising about chopping down trees was not about the principle—after all, they do get too big—but about the resilience of the infrastructure afterwards and ensuring that it is not vulnerable to extreme weather. I must be unlucky, because I have had several train journeys cancelled, either because of landslips or because electricity has not been available for the train at the time. For me, there is definitely a resilience issue that needs to be addressed.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Sarah Boyack
The issue was subcontractors, not Network Rail, making staff redundant.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Sarah Boyack
It is just a quick question on the use of the under-22s scheme. What work is the sector doing to keep those passengers on the bus when they hit 22? I know that quite a lot of young people are not having driving lessons now because they are really expensive. What is the sector doing to market the opportunity to people who have left further or higher education or are in employment? Are you doing partnerships at regional levels with employers to persuade young people to stay with the bus? Is there an opportunity not only to reduce emissions but to generate more income for the sector?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Sarah Boyack
Paul, is there an opportunity for doing that right across the country with the bus sector, the business community and the public sector?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Sarah Boyack
One thing that we heard in the feedback last week was that you have a model that works.
To what extent is there capacity to do that in other parts of Scotland to get the numbers up at that kind of scale? That might be a question for Paul White.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Sarah Boyack
David, how does your company provide new services to give people those choices?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Sarah Boyack
Are there round tables or intergovernmental dialogues on the go? The cross-party discussion that we had was really supportive of the freight rail industry, but it felt as though there was a long list of things that need to happen strategically and in different locations?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Train and Bus Services
Meeting date: 29 April 2025
Sarah Boyack
My question follows on quite well, because it is about how we invest in the new technologies for our rail networks—whether in hydrogen or electrification—and the barriers that we need to overcome. That definitely came up from the Rail Freight Group when it came into the Parliament just a few weeks ago to talk about how we join up the infrastructure, ferries and rail, and how we enable the sector to make better use of our railways. Strategically, the central belt to Inverness and the port of Cairnryan were mentioned. There are blockages right across the country where we need investment in the opportunities to decarbonise our transport and take a lot of heavy goods vehicles off very busy roads, which would be good for a number of reasons. Martin, do you want to come back in on that issue?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
Sarah Boyack
I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which notes my former work with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations.
It has been good to listen to the discussion this morning. The aim of amendment 1079 is to establish a national register of homeless households, which would help us to understand the scale of the national housing emergency. We do not currently have data that is detailed enough on those who are threatened with homelessness or those who are now experiencing homelessness.
I drafted the amendment following an excellent cross-party briefing from the City of Edinburgh Council, where there was a discussion on how we could improve the way in which we tackle the issue of people who are homeless or who are becoming homeless. It is a huge priority for the council to prevent homelessness and to support people who become homeless.
The aim of amendment 1079 is also to ensure that organisations are able to work together to allocate suitable housing. That would streamline the resources that are required for a household that has made homeless applications in multiple local authority areas. The amendment would provide more detailed information about the depth and breadth of the housing issues that are facing Scotland. It is also important that we understand the scale of the issue in order to identify how many new homes are needed.
Amendment 1079 aims to offer an opportunity to get exact information on the scale of housing need through a deliberative and preventative framework. Having a high degree of accuracy in the data on the number of homeless households and where they are will help us to be more accurate in building and planning for the homes that are needed to end homelessness.
I met with the minister several weeks ago and he told me that his amendment 1045 will go further and be more effective than mine. I am very interested in his offer of a follow-up meeting, so that I can also talk with stakeholders and reflect on his comments.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 24 April 2025
Sarah Boyack
The concern is that we do not have enough information at the moment. My amendment would provide for regulations, so there would be capacity to fine tune that. This is a probing amendment, to allow for discussion, and I want to come back to reflect on the stakeholder feedback and have that follow-up discussion with the minister.
I very much welcome the support that Jeremy Balfour has offered. The meeting that we had in Edinburgh was on one of the top issues that the council is facing. We need only to walk around the streets in Edinburgh to see that people are physically homeless and understand the huge impact that that is having on them. I am keen to listen to comments from colleagues and to have a follow-up meeting with the minister. My intention is not to move amendment 1079 today but to reflect on the feedback that I get and to pick up on the details that other colleagues want to raise with me.
