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 2148 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 14 May 2025
Siobhian Brown
I am confident that Police Scotland takes recommendations from the PIRC seriously. As Mr Fraser knows, ministers have no role in the investigation of complaint handling reviews against Police Scotland.
It is not appropriate for me to comment on cases that are subject to an independent process. We also do not comment on operational matters relating to Police Scotland, in order to ensure that Scotland’s criminal justice system remains free from political interference.
I understand that the PIRC has made recommendations about Mr Fraser’s case, and I am sure that Police Scotland is currently considering the issue and will respond in due course.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 1 May 2025
Siobhian Brown
I am always happy to go on visits to fire stations and listen to members of the SFRS. However, we have to be clear that the SFRS is undertaking staff and union engagement on the matter. The final list of possible changes will be subject to public consultation and it has not yet been finalised.
I am not hiding—it is just not appropriate for me to comment on individual options at this stage. The SFRS board and the chief officer are best placed to take decisions on how resources should be deployed, and it would be inappropriate for a minister to direct the SFRS on how it should deploy its resources. This is not a cuts exercise; it is about the SFRS carefully examining the risks that are present in our communities and configuring its resources in the best possible way to deal with those risks.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 1 May 2025
Siobhian Brown
The changes that the Fire and Rescue Service is consulting on have been very carefully considered using substantial evidence and analysis of risk.
As I have said, I am always open to visiting fire stations and hearing directly from those on the front line, and I will speak to my private office about organising a visit. As I set out in my original answer, there will be a full public consultation where everyone will have the opportunity to make their views known.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 1 May 2025
Siobhian Brown
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is carrying out a service delivery review to ensure that its fire stations, appliances and crews are in the right place at the right time to deal with the current and future risks in our communities. Following pre-consultation engagement last year, the SFRS developed a list of possible service changes, and it is currently undertaking staff and trade union engagement on those proposals in advance of undertaking a full public consultation in the summer. I encourage anyone with an interest to engage in that consultation. The SFRS board will then carefully consider the responses in advance of any final decisions being made.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Dog Theft (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Siobhian Brown
The Scottish Government notes that the bill would make the theft of an assistance dog an aggravated offence. As a result, the court would be required to consider whether the sentence given should be enhanced to reflect the significance of taking an assistance dog. That is one of the issues that the committee will be required to carefully consider as the bill is scrutinised. I note from Mr Golden’s letter to the committee of 18 April that he had engaged with stakeholders such as Guide Dogs Forfar, the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Dogs Trust to inform the proposal.
I would like to know more from Maurice Golden about the evidence base to support and justify the position that the emotional impact on victims is not sufficiently considered during sentencing under current law. In the committee’s evidence-taking session on 26 March, the representatives from Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service highlighted that the police
“would have to be able to demonstrate that the accused knew that the dog was an assistance dog to be able to prove the aggravation.”
At the same evidence session, Stuart Munro from the Law Society of Scotland was also clear that
“the sentencing process is already structured in a way that should allow”
information about the impact of the theft of an assistance dog
“to be properly taken into account.”—[Official Report, Rural Affairs and Islands Committee, 26 March 2025; c 20-21.]
If somebody actively seeks to steal an assistance dog, our existing law already reflects that as being worthy of a more serious penalty. We are interested in hearing Mr Golden’s views on that when you take evidence from him.
I will bring in Mr Wilson.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Dog Theft (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Siobhian Brown
Yes—my personal opinion at this stage is that it is a bit over the top, unless there is a justification from Mr Golden that would change my view.
Mr Wilson, do you have any further views on that?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Dog Theft (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Siobhian Brown
We would be keen to hear from Mr Golden about his reasoning in that regard and how he would envisage those provisions moving forward. As I said at the beginning of the session, we are taking a neutral stance on the bill and we will be keen to see the committee’s stage 1 report. Nevertheless, as the Scottish Government, we have to ensure, as the process moves forward, that the bill is legislatively competent, so that it can be enacted, and I will be looking at that.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Dog Theft (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Siobhian Brown
In Mr Golden’s response to the committee, which was published on the website yesterday, he indicates that the reasoning for setting out
“The list of information the annual report should contain”
is so that
“sound and robust data on dog thefts is collated and reported on.”
However, it may be considered unnecessary to place an annual reporting requirement on the Scottish Government for something that is considered to be low-level crime and on which we can already obtain statistics from the Crown Office.
Mr Golden’s response notes that the bill also
“includes the provision that the report must set out whether the Scottish Ministers consider whether there should be a statutory offence for the theft of any other animal kept as a pet.”
I am sure that every member has received emails in relation to that.
It would be welcome to get some further information from Mr Golden when he appears before the committee on 21 May as to the reasons for including that provision in the bill.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Dog Theft (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Siobhian Brown
The points that Ariane Burgess raises are valuable. I would like the expert advisory group to be able to look at all those issues moving forward.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Dog Theft (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 23 April 2025
Siobhian Brown
No, we have not.
