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 772 contributions
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Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Interests
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Gordon MacDonald
I have no relevant interests to declare.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Gordon MacDonald
In 2021, Net Zero Teesside was awarded track 1 status. It was named the UK’s leading carbon capture scheme and awarded a slice of the UK Government’s £1 billion of funding, despite the fact that the Department for Business and Trade had highlighted on its website that
“Scotland is helping lead the way on this work, benefiting from cutting-edge R&D activities, a talented workforce and a significant geographical advantage.”
It also went on to say:
“The North Sea also has enough CO2 storage capacity to support the UK’s demands for hundreds of years.”
Yesterday, Shell pulled out of the Teesside scheme, after National Grid pulled out on Sunday, and has said that it will now focus on the Acorn scheme in Scotland, where it will act as technical developer. Given that news, what further pressure can the Scottish Government put on the UK Government to reconsider funding for the Acorn project? When do you expect to hear any announcement about such funding?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Gordon MacDonald
I have a final question. Earlier, it was mentioned that if we get this right, there is a possibility of creating 77,000 jobs. If the Acorn project and the Scottish Cluster do not get UK Government funding, how many of those jobs will be at risk?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Gordon MacDonald
Good morning, cabinet secretary. I want to ask you about the Acorn project and the Scottish Cluster. The Scottish Government has previously highlighted that the Acorn project is a vital part of its strategy to reduce industrial emissions in Scotland. Will you update the committee on the importance of the project in supporting the transition to net zero? What discussions are taking place with the UK Government on moving the project forward?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 19 April 2023
Gordon MacDonald
I want to ask a couple of questions. In the commission’s report, which was published in July 2022, you noted the importance of an updated industrial strategy. The United Kingdom Government is largely responsible for industrial strategy, and on 1 March it withdrew its strategy, and the replacement plans are not expected before this autumn. What are your views on the impact that the delay in having an updated strategy will have on Scotland’s plans for a just transition?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 19 April 2023
Gordon MacDonald
Professor Skea said that we should move ahead on our own, but unfortunately, funding is a big issue. The Acorn project, which is the Scottish cluster for carbon capture, utilisation and storage, has not had full funding committed to it by the UK Government, although having missed the 2021 funding round, it is now labelled as a leading contender. Forth Ports has described the project as essential in making a considerable contribution to emissions reductions. What is the commission’s view on the importance of the Acorn project, and how do we move it ahead without that funding?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 22 March 2023
Gordon MacDonald
We have touched a lot on the areas that I want to ask about, but you will be happy to know that I have one question with three parts.
Retrofitting of housing stock is a great opportunity. There are 2.6 million homes in Scotland, and we need to retrofit 113,000 homes per year. In Scotland, 99 per cent of businesses are SMEs. You have talked about capital investment and equity investment but, for many of those companies, it is cash flow that kills them.
My first question is: what more can the finance and banking industry do to support SMEs to take up those opportunities, in particular in relation to the cash flow problem?
Secondly, 75 per cent of homes are either owner-occupied or private lets. In my constituency, we are currently two years into a refurbishment of 181 blocks of flats in the Wester Hailes area, and many of the home owners there are being asked for a £40,000 contribution towards the external cladding, new roofs and insulation. Many of them cannot afford it. What can mortgages or buy-to-let mortgages do to support that funding?
Lastly, how do we encourage local job creation from investments from the finance and banking sector? Those are three easy questions.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 22 March 2023
Gordon MacDonald
Heather, your report “Tooling up the Green Homes Industry”, sets out three of the economic barriers as being the cost of heat pumps, the high-quality survey costs and payback periods for retrofits.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 15 March 2023
Gordon MacDonald
We have started to touch on the area that I want to look at. Derek, you said that Scottish Enterprise is carrying out research to identify investment opportunities in the Grangemouth area. I want to ask you about jobs. In response to the committee’s call for views, GMB Scotland noted that hydrogen and carbon capture both offer the potential for jobs growth, but that that does not guarantee the retention of current levels of skilled jobs.
Given that Scottish Enterprise has a role to play in not only creating but safeguarding jobs, how do you strike the balance between safeguarding existing skilled jobs and creating job opportunities when you make investment decisions?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 15 March 2023
Gordon MacDonald
Derek, I put to you the same question about local jobs for local people. In addition, what do you do about considering growing local supply chains when you are looking at investing in the Grangemouth area?
