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 1169 contributions
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Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Tom Arthur
There can be a number of reasons but, clearly, inflationary pressures and supply chain challenges have resulted in project delivery slipping.
I should probably add that, with regard to the capital reduction of £92 million in the NZET portfolio, we have provided project development support to undertake feasibility studies and business cases to secure investment in future years and we are beginning to support a number of multiyear projects. In addition, we recently established a heat network support unit to work directly with pre-capital projects to support development ahead of capital investment, which will provide greater certainty for spend in future years. We need to consider the economic context in which we are operating, but we are taking action in year to help to address that.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Tom Arthur
As you will appreciate, we will set out our position for the next financial year at the budget, and it will be determined by a number of factors. Our commitment on net zero is absolute. That should be clear. What we have to do with the ABR is to make sure, first, that we arrive at a balanced budget position by the end of the financial year, as we are required to do, and secondly that we seek to free up resource to provide support in year. That has been part of the EBR exercise.
As the Deputy First Minister said in the September statement, some of those savings are captured in the ABR. There are £191 million of pressures identified that may follow through in the SBR. Savings that were identified in the EBR statement and publication earlier this month will, where appropriate and required, come through in the SBR. With regard to the next financial year and beyond, we will seek to be consistent with the priorities as set out in the resource spending review. We will, of course, take specific decisions at the budget.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Tom Arthur
As part of the process of setting the budget for next year, we will consider what the demand has been for demand-led schemes in previous years. Demand-led schemes are always one of the challenges that we have in the budget, particularly as we get towards the year end. It can be a challenge if there is less demand than was forecast, because there is an effect on the end-of-year position if underspends emerge. It can also be a challenge if demand exceeds what was forecast. We reflect on that as part of the budget-setting process and we consider what the effective level should be for the following year.
With regard to what is identified in the document, I note that the capital savings have allowed the provision of £120 million of capital to local government to support pay deals. That is for this year and next year, and it will then be wound in as revenue.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Tom Arthur
I want to be absolutely clear: net zero is a key priority of the Government; it is a moral imperative. We are taking forward a range of actions in the broader programme for government. Clearly, in the specific case that you allude to—NZET—being able to decarbonise how we heat our buildings will be a key aspect. As I set out, we have initiated work to help support the pipeline of projects to help address the underdemand that there has been for those funds. It is important to recognise that within the broader context of work that is under way. For example, a few weeks ago—wearing another hat—I published our revised national planning framework, which has been warmly welcomed by the Scottish renewable sector as a remarkable step forward. It is important to recognise the particular fiscal and economic circumstances that we are in, but that does not detract from the imperative and priority of meeting our net zero obligations.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Tom Arthur
The allocation of the Scottish budget, earlier this year, demonstrates that commitment, but the issue here has been demand. The issue has not been the willingness of the Government to supply the resource; it has been the demand that has led to us being in a position to reallocate that funding to support the in-year position. However, I recognise the point that you make, and that is why we are taking the action that we are taking to address the shortfall in demand. That is why the work that I outlined to support project development is taking place.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Tom Arthur
It is with regard to what is identified in the ABR and what is identified as an unfunded pressure.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Tom Arthur
We are not depending on the fiscal framework review to fix this year’s budget, but I am not going to suggest in any way that this is not an issue that needs to be addressed, which will be done through the fiscal framework.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Tom Arthur
That is from our internal monitoring of budget pressures. Are you talking about the “Pressure reductions” column?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Tom Arthur
There are a number of things that have led to the previously unfunded pressures that we have discussed already. I will ask Niall Caldwell to say a bit more.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 22 November 2022
Tom Arthur
The point is that revenue can be used to pay for capital, with revenue reserves meeting capital expenditure. That then frees up the revenue reserve, which can then be used.
