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.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
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.
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.
There are two types of keyword search:
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.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
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:
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.
Displaying 4120 contributions
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Audrey Nicoll
We have only four or five minutes left, and a couple of other members want to ask questions, so perhaps you could follow up on that in writing.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Audrey Nicoll
Thank you. I will bring in other members, and I hand over to Liam Kerr.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Audrey Nicoll
As I said at the outset of our previous session with Pam Gosal, the Criminal Justice Committee regularly considers the issue of tackling violence against women and girls, which we take extremely seriously, as I am sure you know.
I will start with a general opening question, before bringing in Liam Kerr. As you will be aware, the minister said in a letter to the committee that
“There remain significant questions and concerns regarding the measures within the Bill and how they would work in practice, the extent to which they would deliver on the policy intent, and the associated financial implications.”
It is quite a broad question, but could you respond to those comments?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Audrey Nicoll
I have another couple of questions. You have spoken about other models, such as those in Sweden and Northern Ireland. The consultation responses indicate that there is a significant amount of support for the bill’s provision that would more fully criminalise those who are seeking to buy sex. However, I am aware of the work that has been done on legislation in Northern Ireland which, essentially, did the same thing, in that it criminalised the purchase of sex. The Department of Justice commissioned an official review in 2019 which found that there was
“no evidence that the offence of purchasing sexual services has produced a downward pressure on demand for, or supply of, sexual services”.
What is your view on the Northern Ireland experience? How might that shape your thinking about the legislative provision in Scotland?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Audrey Nicoll
Liam Kerr has a question, following which I will bring in Rachael Hamilton.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Audrey Nicoll
I have to bring the session to a close, so I thank Ash Regan and her staff for joining us this morning. That has been a helpful session.
We will suspend for a couple of minutes to allow our witnesses to depart.
12:00 Meeting suspended.Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Audrey Nicoll
Rona Mackay, I forgot to bring you in for a supplementary to my questions.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Audrey Nicoll
Katy Clark has a question.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Audrey Nicoll
Our next agenda item is an evidence session on the Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill from the member in charge of the bill, Ash Regan. We are also joined by Rachael Hamilton. I welcome Ash Regan to today’s meeting. She is accompanied by Maren Schroeder, senior researcher, and Anna MacLeod, parliamentary assistant, who are both from her office.
10:45The purpose of today’s evidence session is to inform the committee’s understanding of what the bill proposes. As with the previous session, this is an initial evidence session, and the committee will make a decision at a meeting in September on future evidence taking from other witnesses. I refer members to paper 1 and the letter from the Scottish Government giving its view on the bill. I will allow about 60 minutes for the session.
I invite Ash Regan to make an opening statement, for about five minutes.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Audrey Nicoll
You have focused on one specific aspect, but can you provide more detail on the wider cost implications?