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 MSPs and committees will automatically update to show only the MSPs and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of MSPs and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of MSPs 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 1344 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 September 2025
Paul McLennan
I will move on, and I will ask Duncan Dunlop to respond to this question first. Some of the submissions to the committee said that there needs to be clarity on the bill’s proposal for guidance in relation to care experience to ensure that it is effective. You touched on that earlier. There was also a range of views about who should be included in any proposed definition.
How can the Scottish Government ensure that the provisions have a positive impact on care-experienced people, and how do you suggest work to decide on a definition—
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 September 2025
Paul McLennan
Duncan Dunlop has mentioned advocacy and Jo Derrick has spoken about aftercare, and both have made important points. I previously used an example of kids who are about 15 or 16 who were ready for the transition. They had issues with housing and concerns about what their next step in life would be, and very little support was provided. Getting that start in life could have made a huge impact on them.
There is another question about geographical differences. The care that someone will be provided will be very different in rural Aberdeenshire or the Highlands and Islands compared to urban Glasgow and Edinburgh. We have not really discussed that, but we need to ensure that the level of care, support and advocacy is not impacted by geography.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 September 2025
Paul McLennan
Margaret Smith, in previous meetings, we have heard about the role of advocacy and about whether it should be independent. We see people who are care experienced going on to be advocates for people who are entering or coming out of the system.
What are your thoughts are on that point? I think that it is very relevant. Like George Adam, I was a councillor for 15 years, so I have seen that role close up. What are your thoughts on that?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 September 2025
Paul McLennan
I mean your thoughts about how that can follow on from the care experience, because there are not many better advocates or people to assist than those who have been through the system themselves.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 September 2025
Paul McLennan
If no one else wants to come in on that point, I will hand back to the convener.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 September 2025
Paul McLennan
Jo, do you have any views on the point about the UNCRC in the context of aftercare?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2025
Paul McLennan
I want to touch on advocacy, which I know that Pam Duncan-Glancy was going to move on to. I do not know whether you heard the evidence in the previous evidence session. My background is 15 years as a councillor, during which I dealt with situations involving kids with care experience; advocacy was a really important part of their journey, not only for them but for their families. Section 4 of the bill talks about new
“rights of access to care experience advocacy services”,
with that right shaped by secondary legislation. What would that secondary legislation look like?
The other key thing is that this is almost an urban versus rural discussion, because advocacy services are probably much easier to access in urban areas than in rural ones. When we spoke to the sheriff in the previous evidence session, we found that this also related to section 18, which is on advocacy in the hearings system. Is there confusion on that point? What are your thoughts on that?
Claire Burns, I will come to you on that question and then open it up to anybody else who wants to come in.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2025
Paul McLennan
I do not know whether Maria Galli or Kate Thompson wishes to come in.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2025
Paul McLennan
It does. Before I come to David Mackie to ask about the hearings system, I want to highlight a key point that I discussed when I met Who Cares? Scotland. As someone who represents East Lothian, which is a mix of urban and rural, I think that it is probably easier for someone to access an advocacy service in Edinburgh or Glasgow than it is for someone in the Highlands. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to provision.
What are your thoughts on that? Independent advocacy is important, but provision needs to be as universal as possible across the whole of Scotland, and that will not be as easy in remote areas.
I will get your thoughts on that and then come to David Mackie on the hearings system.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 10 September 2025
Paul McLennan
I want to build on some of the discussions that we have had about advocacy services and to delve a little bit deeper into that issue. Having been a councillor for 15 years and having spoken to families and care-experienced children, I know that that is really important, but it is now complex.
Section 4 of the bill mentions
“rights of access to care experience advocacy services.”
It is a complex area, as we know, and there are also advocacy services for children’s hearings, which are covered in section 18 of the bill. Several organisations, including The Promise Scotland, have commented to an extent on the new rights of access to care experience advocacy services that will be shaped by secondary legislation. What will those services look like in practice? Secondary legislation will be an important part of determining that. How will those services interact with section 18 of the bill, which covers advocacy in the hearings system? Given that we have started to discuss the system, it is an important point.
