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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 2447 contributions
|
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2025
Bob Doris
The bill says that the function is
“to promote the wellbeing of future generations by promoting sustainable development by public bodies in all aspects of their decisions, policies and actions.”
That is the overarching intention for the function of the future generations commissioner, as it is outlined in the bill. Can you see a situation in which that definition and those functions could overlap with or rub against the functions of another commissioner or public body?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2025
Bob Doris
If you wanted to reflect on the question and write to us, that would be helpful. It is difficult because we have a bill that may become statute, so we are looking for concrete examples of things that, by definition, do not exist but could happen in the future.
I will ask about the costs that are set out in the financial memorandum. I get that you are all here to talk about the policy intent, but we have to ask about the costs. From my notes—if I can read my own handwriting—I see that the establishment costs are about £800,000 and the running costs are about £1.2 million. As things stand, the running costs for the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales are about £1.8 million.
Do the witnesses have any reflections on whether those costs are appropriate? Are they too low or too high? Last week, I asked witnesses to comment on whether the proposal was value for money. I ask Duncan Thorp to respond first, and I will also ask Emma Hunter, on the basis that she is directly involved in the running of a commissioner’s office.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2025
Bob Doris
Thank you for answering both questions at the same time, which was very helpful. What are the opportunities and potential longer-term cost savings in making that investment now? I will ask Duncan Thorp first and then go along the witnesses.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2025
Bob Doris
I was interested in the answers to Carol Mochan’s question about the general function of the proposed commissioner being
“to promote the wellbeing of future generations by promoting sustainable development by public bodies in all aspects of their decisions, policies and actions.”
Emma Hunter talked about the possibility of overlap between commissioners. Could there be a situation in which the Children and Young People’s Commissioner was looking at aspects of public bodies that did not meet some of the requirements that are in the bill? You mentioned the Scottish Human Rights Commission. In relation to the definition of the proposed commissioner’s functions—I may be hinting at nothing here—can you give a tangible example of where there could be an overlap? I know that this is theoretical because the commissioner does not exist yet, but where might overlap occur in practice?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2025
Bob Doris
I feel as though I am targeting you now, Mr Thorp, so I apologise for pursuing this with you further. Would it make sense to rationalise commissioners in that way before we set up another commissioner? For example, yesterday, the Parliament passed the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, which created a new commissioner, which will sit within the existing Scottish Land Commission in order to share back-office functions and make cost savings. It is a chicken-and-egg situation—what should we do first?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2025
Bob Doris
Emma Hunter, do you want to reflect on that?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2025
Bob Doris
I am about to bring in Jenny Munro on a specific question about the RTPI, but I will flag my final question. Will there be opportunities—if a commissioners office worked well—for long-term cost savings? I will leave that question hanging there—I will ask you all about the long-term cost savings of such an investment, as it would be helpful to get comments on that.
Jenny, I did not want to have you here without asking you about pressures on local authorities and planning departments. I suppose that, theoretically, that could be another pressure on local authority planning departments. Are they well placed to deal with what the bill would introduce, whether that is a new responsibility or a clear statutory focus on an existing responsibility? Are there any financial implications for local authorities?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 6 November 2025
Bob Doris
That concludes our public business for the day.
10:10 Meeting continued in private until 11:22.Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2025
Bob Doris
It was a helpful tangent, Ellie. We will listen back to your evidence and we will consider it. It all helps the committee to form its views, so thank you.
Emma, do you want to add anything?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]
Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 6 November 2025
Bob Doris
That is very helpful. I will come to you next, Jenny. Turning to my prompt question—in case this had not already come up—Emma Hunter has suggested that the national performance framework and Scotland’s national outcomes have not really been as effective as we wanted them to be. If we can work well, being clearer and more focused and with a more deliverable approach, might that be a better way of doing things than the proposed legislation—or, rather, an alternative to the legislation, as “a better way” is more of a biased comment? Do you have any comments to make on that, Jenny?
