The official European and international (PCT) search reports are normally published together with the European and international applications and are included in the search files together with these applications. The official search reports relating to national applications, as well as unofficial search reports, are also included in these files to the extent that they are available to the public. Search reports that are not normally or not yet accessible to the public in the form of a published document are nevertheless available to the search division separately from the state-of-the-art documents, and searching thereof is not compulsory for all applications.
Source: http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/guidelines/e/b_ix_2_3.htm
Date retrieved: 17 May 2021