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.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
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.
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.
There are two types of keyword search:
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.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
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:
If you search by an individual session, the list of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and committees will automatically update to show only the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 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.
Displaying 5980 contributions
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Edward Mountain
I have a couple of questions on LEZs. In the previous session, I sat through the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee’s examination of the Transport (Scotland) Bill and LEZs. We were told that winning people over was really important, as Gary Fuller has just indicated. We were also told that the money that is collected from LEZs should be invested in the infrastructure needed to make the LEZs work more effectively. It is difficult to compare London with Aberdeen. London has an integrated transport policy, with buses and tubes that interconnect. Glasgow might be able to claim to have some of that, but I am not sure that Aberdeen can claim to have that.
Should the money that is raised from LEZs be ring fenced and put straight back into improving transport infrastructure so that we do not disadvantage people who can no longer take their cars into cities?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Edward Mountain
Paul White talked about LEZs and Euro 6 engines on buses. Is there a fear that LEZs in major conurbations that require Euro 6 bus engines will push those buses that do not meet the Euro 6 bus engine standards into rural settings, where there are not LEZs, or is that nothing to be worried about?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Edward Mountain
Thank you very much. As with the panel from the previous evidence session, we have overrun slightly, but that shows how interested everyone has been in the subject. Thank you very much for giving your time. We will move into private session. I politely ask you to move as quickly as possible, because we have quite a lot to discuss, but thank you very much for your very valid input.
12:05 Meeting continued in private until 12:17.Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Edward Mountain
I am happy to let this session run for a bit. If Gary Fuller could give a really short answer, you can then put your questions to Paul White. Gary, do not upset Monica.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Edward Mountain
Maybe you could roll your questions for Paul White into one, Monica.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Edward Mountain
There is always an expectation on the convener to manage the committee to make sure that all members get to ask the questions that they want to ask, which is difficult.
Thank you very much. It has been a really interesting session. I have found it extremely interesting, and the fact that we have overrun probably proves that everybody has found that.
I will briefly suspend the meeting until 10.50 to allow a change of panels.
10:46 Meeting suspended.Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Edward Mountain
Monica Lennon wants to come in on this specific point.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Edward Mountain
Before we leave talking about Glasgow, could Dom Callaghan clarify something for me? There is talk that the council would like to include the M8 in the LEZ. Is that true?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Edward Mountain
I wanted to clarify that because, from my understanding of the 2019 act, special roads, such as some trunk roads and the M8, cannot be included in LEZs. I wanted to ascertain what the process would be if the council’s aspiration were to include the M8 in the LEZ. Who would have to give authority for that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Edward Mountain
The final questions for this panel come from Monica Lennon, who has waited very patiently.