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 916 contributions
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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Meghan Gallacher
That was really helpful, everyone. Thank you very much.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Meghan Gallacher
Finally, there is a likelihood that, as a result of this work, there will be an increase in the number of appeals coming through the system. I am talking hypothetically, of course, but how would you manage it if more people were to appeal? Again, do we have the resources to deal with that?
10:45Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Skye House (Care of Children)
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Meghan Gallacher
I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement.
The minister states that she is unable to comment on the details of individual cases of care and treatment. However, in this instance, individual cases are critical to shining a light on the lack of action taken by those at Skye house and those in the NHS and the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Government did not find out about the problem through the BBC documentary—it has known for years. I have emails from my constituent that outline when she contacted ministers for help. On 23 June 2023, my constituent contacted Scottish Government officials on behalf of her daughter, Harmony. On 12 August 2024, she contacted the First Minister; the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray; and the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, Natalie Don-Innes. The email subject line read:
“Urgent concerns regarding the care and treatment of our child”.
On 25 November 2024, she again contacted the minister, Natalie Don-Innes, after being ignored by the minister who has delivered the statement today.
I have no idea how the minister can stand here today and pretend to be shocked, because she has known about this for years. The minister says that she finally feels the need to make a statement on the abuse that young women endured while they were detained at Skye house—two years late. Is she now acting only because the issue has been made public?
Why did none of the Scottish Government ministers treat my constituent’s letter with the utmost seriousness? Why did multiple ministers ignore a parent who was trying to raise institutional failures at Skye house?
If the minister is going to take suggestions from members today, will she conduct an urgent investigation into the matter to find out why nobody contacted my constituent to give them the help and support that they deserved?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Business Motions
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Meghan Gallacher
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. There was an issue with my app; I would have voted yes.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 19 February 2025
Meghan Gallacher
Over the past few months, I have been working with a family regarding their daughter, Harmony. The family told me that their daughter was illegally sectioned and brought to Skye house on 17 October 2022.
Harmony was given the wrong dosage of medication. She was restrained, taken from her family—who were managing her mental health concerns—and put into Skye house, where she was subjected to abuse and neglectful care. The abuse and cruelty that were shown in the documentary lay bare the institutional crisis at Skye house. Those young women were children—children who needed our care and support.
Harmony’s parents have not stopped fighting for their daughter, acting to correct her medical records and challenging those who have failed to care for her. They attempted several times to contact the Scottish Government—including the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray, and the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport, Maree Todd—to make it aware of what was happening at Skye house.
Why has the Government—I am looking at both the cabinet secretary and the minister—ignored the family? Will the cabinet secretary respond to the letter that I sent requesting a meeting with the family? Will the Scottish Government step in to ensure that such abuse and neglect will never happen again at such an establishment?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 19 February 2025
Meghan Gallacher
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent programme, “Disclosure: Kids on the Psychiatric Ward”, which features Skye house in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. (S6O-04322)
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Meghan Gallacher
Good morning. If we managed to reform council tax, find the political consensus that we have spoken about and overcome the hurdles that have been mentioned, significant administrative and financial investment would be required to make the new system work in practice. How much do you envisage that that might cost? Who, ultimately, should pay for it?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Meghan Gallacher
I have a quick follow-up question. Given the substantial financial pressures that councils up and down the country are experiencing in this financial year and the dramatic council tax increases to cover shortfalls, do you think that this is the right time to be looking at council tax reform?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Meghan Gallacher
Good morning. We have spoken a great deal about the impact of council tax reform on councils. Could you possibly expand on the impact that it could have on general resource grants? We have already covered a little about how certain local authorities could benefit from such reform, but could it impact on council finances elsewhere?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Meghan Gallacher
Thank you. That highlights some of the challenges that we are going to come across when talking about council tax reform.
