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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 2412 contributions
|
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 4 November 2025
Siobhian Brown
Yes—when drafting the SSIs, we engaged with a series of stakeholders. I will ask one of my officials to answer that question.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 4 November 2025
Siobhian Brown
My understanding is that we have not engaged with the UK Government on the issue. I do not know whether my officials can correct me on that. Was there a duty that required us to do so?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 30 October 2025
Siobhian Brown
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service received more than 3,500 responses to its review consultation and held more than 40 public meetings. The review was in reaction to the changing nature of emergencies that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service responds to. For example, as I have already noted, dwelling fires have reduced by 20 per cent since 2013, and incidents such as flooding and wildfires have increased significantly. Therefore, it is right for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to carefully consider how to adapt to the changing risks, in order to remain effective and efficient, with firefighters in the right place at the right time.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 30 October 2025
Siobhian Brown
As I have said, I believe that it is for the chief fire officer and his commanders across the service to make the decisions that are best for the service, in order to protect communities across the country and respond to the changing nature of risk. This is not a decision for the Scottish Government, and it is appropriate that decisions on fire appliances are best placed with the service.
As I have outlined, an independent analysis of the responses to the consultation will inform the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s final decisions. Any changes that the service introduces will be made over the next five years. I meet the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service frequently, and it has confirmed to me that no decisions have been made.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 30 October 2025
Siobhian Brown
Regarding the response time that the member mentioned, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service continues to respond to every emergency incident with the appropriate level of resources. Its targeted approach to risk and the allocation of resources overtook the focus on response times some years ago, and I would also point out that we have seen an increase in response times across the whole of the United Kingdom.
The safety of our firefighters is of utmost importance, and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has in place strict health and safety policies that have evolved over the years. For example, changes to operational procedures to stop firefighters travelling under blue-light conditions while putting on personal protective equipment have added to response times in recent years. That is an essential change to protect firefighter safety.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 30 October 2025
Siobhian Brown
It is welcome that dwelling fires have reduced, as have non-fatal fire casualties—by 33 per cent—and that fatal fire casualties reduced by 32 per cent between 2009-10 and 2023-24. That shows the value of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s prevention activities over the years.
The rationale behind the service delivery review is to ensure that the SFRS can better focus its resources where they are needed most—for example, on training and prevention—so that our firefighters are better located and prepared to deal with current and future risks, such as the record number of wildfire warning periods that we have seen this year.
I appreciate that service changes will always be a matter of concern for people in the immediate vicinity of the impacted fire station, but it is for the SFRS, as the expert in its field, to decide the best changes that can be made over time to ensure that firefighters are in the right place at the right time to deal with incidents when they occur.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 30 October 2025
Siobhian Brown
I have to be clear that the primary driver for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s proposed changes is not financial. The chief fire officer has said publicly that, if he had all the resources that he needed, he would still be considering the changes.
I met Mr Leonard in 2023 to discuss these issues. I will ask for an update on the situation, and I am happy to meet him again to discuss the IT issues.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
General Question Time
Meeting date: 30 October 2025
Siobhian Brown
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has conducted a public consultation on its service delivery review to consider how its services should best be configured to ensure that firefighters are in the right place at the right time. The responses are being independently analysed and will inform final decisions of the SFRS board.
The SFRS plans to redeploy resources that are freed up by any changes that it makes to provide a greater resource to its prevention and protection function, and to boost training provision to ensure firefighters can continue to keep all our communities safe from the changing risks that they need to respond to, while also investing in fire station facilities.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Siobhian Brown
The legal aid system is generally effective in delivering help to those who need it. However, we recognise that there are some challenges in relation to certain types of case and certain locations. Although civil solicitors are mainly based in city centres, near to the courts, they have always covered a wide geographical area. I can reassure the member that solicitors in all parts of Scotland are able to access funding for work that is carried out under the legal assistance schemes, and those schemes are flexible enough to allow solicitors to travel to any part of the country to carry out work, should it not be possible to instruct a local agent.
That said, as part of the discussions around the criteria for a new traineeship fund, my officials are currently exploring whether there is a need to be specific in targeting geographical areas or types of case.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Siobhian Brown
A lot of work is going on in that area. The member will know about our work on legal aid reform. We will not be able to pass legislation on that during this parliamentary session, but work is under way on it at the moment.
The Scottish Government is investing record levels of funding to support victims through a wide range of front-line services, including specialist legal advice. This year’s budget was at a record high, with total legal aid fund investment of £165 million. The fund is demand led, so all eligible costs will be met, regardless of the cost.
Legal aid is available to victims of domestic and gender-based violence who are seeking protection through civil actions where they meet the statutory eligibility criteria. I appreciate that there are some challenges, and that is why I am working with the legal profession to move forward in conquering those challenges.
