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 788 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Health Service Dental Services
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Jenni Minto
That is still our intention, but, given the current financial climate, we have been focusing on ensuring that we can stabilise dentistry in Scotland and that we have the right workforce. That commitment is still our intention.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Health Service Dental Services
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Jenni Minto
As I highlighted, we have allocated £0.5 billion to dentistry in the 2025-26 budget, which is a 33 per cent increase during this session of Parliament. If the Scottish Government had simply allocated Barnett consequentials, the amount would have been about £300 million, which would have left a shortfall. That emphasises the importance that we put on investing in dental health in Scotland.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Health Service Dental Services
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Jenni Minto
I can speak only from my experience of having visited a couple of public dental services. They are being innovative in the work that they do, such as providing the anaesthesia to do operations or extractions in a non-theatre location. They are looking at what they can do. A number of questions have been asked in the chamber about how we retain university graduates in NHS dentistry services, and we are looking at how we can provide support to encourage people to join the PDS.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Health Service Dental Services
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Jenni Minto
That is a really important point, and I am happy to take it away and consider it. I agree that we have to work closely with third sector organisations that support health settings. I will take that point away, and we will add it to the work that we need to do on access, specifically for young children.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Health Service Dental Services
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Jenni Minto
Yes.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Health Service Dental Services
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Jenni Minto
I thank Paul Sweeney for that question, as I recognise the picture that he is painting. We have to recognise, though, that dental practices are businesses, and dentists can make the decisions that they feel are appropriate in order to run them. However, my team and I are absolutely focused on ensuring that we put the right investment into the right places in NHS dentistry in Scotland to ensure that people do not have to make that very difficult choice.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Jenni Minto
Paul Sweeney raises some really interesting points. I was completely shocked when I saw the pictures of the gravestones in Glasgow with the stickers on them. I have referenced the museum that I worked in that was surrounded by a graveyard, and there are many other old graveyards across Argyll and Bute. In my role, having looked at the regulations, I have to admit that, when I visit graveyards in Argyll and Bute, I look at them with completely different eyes.
In order to ensure that we have very good burial regulations, we have worked closely with a wide range of stakeholders—that is one of the regulations’ strengths. It is important that we recognise the cultural side, too, and inspectors are part of that. They ensure that burial authorities, which are likely to be local authorities in the main, are following the right procedures, and appropriate ones for what Paul Sweeney described as a key part of our culture in Scotland. The regulations and the inspection regime will ensure that we and the burial authorities have much better understanding and knowledge of what is appropriate.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Jenni Minto
We are clear in the regulations that, if a local authority is looking at a specific graveyard, it needs to publicise that as best it can, whether that is through social media or in newspapers, to ensure that people know that it is likely that it will be coming to inspect the graveyard. A lot of that should already be clear in the regulations.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Jenni Minto
Thank you, convener. I will simply move the motions and propose that the committee recommends that the regulations be approved.
Motions moved,
That the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee recommends that the Burial (Management) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 [draft] be approved.
That the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee recommends that the Burial and Cremation (Inspection) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 [draft] be approved.—[Jenni Minto]
Motions agreed to.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Jenni Minto
Thank you. I recognise what you are talking about in your question. I used to manage a museum that was located in a former church surrounded by gravestones and I remember the distress caused for some people when local authorities went there to ensure that the gravestones and memorials were safe. That absolutely comes under not just the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, but the Occupiers’ Liability (Scotland) Act 1960, which ensure that employees of local authorities are given the correct protections when they are at work.
The guidelines in the regulations tie into the best practice that is already happening. I recognise that some local authorities might have concerns, but additional guidance was brought in in 2019 after the tragic loss of a young boy in Glasgow. Work was done across the board to bring in local authorities and ensure that they recognised the importance of that work. Local authorities should have an established memorial safety inspection programme, and making safe should be part of their regular work anyway.
I believe that what we are asking for is proportionate. I also believe that all the appropriate people and parties have been consulted and informed about the change.
