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 ˿ and committees will automatically update to show only the ˿ and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of ˿ and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of ˿ 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 2022 contributions
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Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Grangemouth’s Industrial Future
Meeting date: 21 May 2025
Bob Doris
Minister, I am sorry to interrupt, as it is not in my nature to cut across people who are giving evidence to the committee. I apologise—it is only because I have time constraints in relation to my questions.
I know that I mentioned REMA, but the point that I was trying to make was about the actions that the UK Government can take to reduce the electricity costs for green hydrogen. I am not being discourteous but, rather than asking for an extended explanation of what REMA is, I am asking: what is the UK Government doing to reduce the electricity costs for green hydrogen? That is what the five energy companies and the Acorn project wanted to know.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Grangemouth’s Industrial Future
Meeting date: 21 May 2025
Bob Doris
Good morning. Minister, I was pleased to hear you say that you want to do everything that you can to speed up investment, so I want to make some suggestions to you about the things that we can do now. I also sit on the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, which, yesterday, heard from five energy companies and the general manager of the Acorn project on the hydrogen economy and project willow. One of the major barriers is that more than 70 per cent of the costs of green hydrogen relate to electricity. Those costs can be brought down, and some suggestions were made about how to do that. I am conscious that, more generally, there is a review of electricity market arrangements in the UK.
Direct action could be taken to dramatically reduce the costs of producing green hydrogen. Those costs are a key barrier to getting the investment that we want, so what is happening on that, minister?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Grangemouth’s Industrial Future
Meeting date: 21 May 2025
Bob Doris
That would be helpful. I think that you can get to about 20 per cent in blending before you have to start looking at the infrastructure and changing the pipe network.
I want to ask about project union, the 1,500-mile transmission pipeline grid for hydrogen that is being considered. At yesterday’s meeting of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, one of the witnesses—I think that it was the general manager of the Acorn project; I apologise if it was a different witness—said that the Scottish Government should put pressure on the UK Government to give certainty in relation to when the Scottish part of the project will be complete. I understand that the next leg will be in Scotland, hooking up the Acorn project, the Grangemouth cluster and other grid networks.
We have been told that a lack of commitment to carbon capture through the Acorn project and also to grid and pipework infrastructure will surely compromise the investment that we all want to happen. You said that you will do everything that is possible to speed up investment. It would help industry and investors if the UK Government could say, “Project union in Scotland means that this will happen by date X, and this is what it will look like.” That would bring investment into the sector now. Can you give any clarity on that, either just now or following up in writing?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Grangemouth (Project Willow)
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Bob Doris
Yes.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Grangemouth (Project Willow)
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Bob Doris
I do not want to put words in your mouth but, to paraphrase, you are, in part, saying that the lack of certainty and clarity is impacting on investment now.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Grangemouth (Project Willow)
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Bob Doris
I will go to my final question. I will bring in Tim Dumenil, because he might also want to reflect on the previous answer. I know that there are time constraints.
What are your views on the potential transportation of hydrogen by ship, either as ammonia or compressed hydrogen? Our notes say that, as the years go by, that will become more viable and potentially more important. I am interested to know your views on that. Tim, do you want to come in on that? You can also reflect on the previous question if you wish.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Grangemouth (Project Willow)
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Bob Doris
I see nodding heads. I do not want to put words in your mouth, Tim, but are you suggesting that pivoting towards shipping in the years ahead might compromise the infrastructure that we need for long-term sustainability? Could shipping be counterproductive?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Grangemouth (Project Willow)
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Bob Doris
That is helpful, because it ties in quite well with what Mr Amos said about how you get that high value and a bigger boost for your economy and everything else. Thank you.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Grangemouth (Project Willow)
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Bob Doris
Tim, you said that, in a previous existence, you were involved with Acorn and you mentioned some of those issues. Do you want to comment on anything that you have heard so far?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Grangemouth (Project Willow)
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Bob Doris
Good afternoon, everyone. You probably heard me put a similar question to the previous panel—you were coming in as Mr Lumsden and I were asking questions. It is about a national network of hydrogen pipes moving hydrogen around Scotland and the UK, and project union was mentioned. I asked the first panel about the hope that that will be in place by the mid-2030s but it will not all happen at the one time—it will be phased and prioritised for the benefit of Scotland, the Scottish economy and our net zero targets. How should that work be phased and prioritised in the Scottish context? It would be helpful to know that.
