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 979 contributions
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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Suicide Prevention
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Meghan Gallacher
It definitely does. I am hugely concerned about the situation, for the reasons that you have articulated so well. As you said, it is so important for there to be safe places for men to talk. As women, we will congregate to get all the weight off our shoulders, but men will not automatically do that. You highlighted an excellent point about the need for role models to bring up the next generation of men who can be confident in themselves, and it is hugely important that men have somewhere to go where they know for a fact that they will be welcome and able to be open and that will not be an alien place to them.
On funding for men’s sheds, I am terribly concerned about the impact that the closure of men’s sheds would have on already concerning statistics for men in general. What is the timeframe? You mentioned eight to nine months. What happens? Do men’s sheds in rural areas close first, or is it those in urban areas? How could that be condensed? I am pretty certain that every men’s shed across Scotland has a worth and a purpose and serves many men—I think that you have 3,000 members.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Suicide Prevention
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Meghan Gallacher
If that does not tell us how important men’s sheds are, I do not know what will. We can link men’s sheds to other issues. We have veterans groups for a purpose, we have Women’s Aid groups for a purpose, and I whole-heartedly believe that we have men’s sheds for a purpose.
Thank you very much, Jason. I am sorry that I did not widen my question, but I believe that we need to emphasise one of the biggest groups who are impacted by suicide. I understand that the same issue will affect all the groups who are covered by charities that are represented here today, but I felt that that needed to be put on the record. I do not know whether anyone else wants to come in on that point.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Suicide Prevention
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Meghan Gallacher
Would anyone else like to comment?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Suicide Prevention
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Meghan Gallacher
That is definitely a point that we should address.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Suicide Prevention
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Meghan Gallacher
It is about data harnessing to create prevention. If we do not know what the causes are, we cannot prevent it. It is a cycle and we need to get it right. There are a lot of factors. Although we have a strategy, there are still links missing from the chain, so there is a lot more work to do.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Suicide Prevention
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Meghan Gallacher
Thank you very much for that. That is another issue that is close to my heart, so thank you very much again for raising those points. Convener, I am conscious of time, but thank you very much for that.
Meeting of the Parliament
Gender-identity Healthcare for Young People
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Meghan Gallacher
I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement.
I spent last week trying to secure a statement from the Government on the Cass review and puberty-suppressing hormones. Every single attempt was voted down or refused. Finally, after confirmation from the health board of a pause in puberty-suppressing hormones for new patients, we have a statement today, but I do not know why the minister bothered, because it will offer no comfort whatsoever to families who have been failed by gender care services in Scotland.
The Scottish Government’s direction of travel on this vitally important issue is as clear as mud. The statement does not confirm whether the Government will implement any of the review’s 32 recommendations, nor does it address the cut to gender care services. The Government claims that it supports young people who are experiencing gender distress, yet members of it have publicly dismissed the findings of an evidence-based expert report.
Today’s exercise in kicking the can down the road and stalling for more time shows that the Government is more concerned about holding together its fragile pact with the dogmatic Greens than about healthcare for vulnerable young people.
When will parents and young people receive a meaningful update? Can the minister assure Parliament that all Government ministers will follow the science rather than ideology?
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Meghan Gallacher
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the LGBT Youth Scotland pilot programme to introduce youth clubs in schools. (S6T-01938)
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Meghan Gallacher
It has been widely reported that Scottish primary schools are appointing children as LGBT champions and asking pupils as young as four whether they are transgender. That is part of a project that was set up by LGBT Youth Scotland and funded by the Scottish Government, using taxpayers’ money. Parents are outraged by some of the materials that have been distributed by schools that have signed up to those youth clubs.
My understanding is that LGBT Youth Scotland’s charitable constitution clearly states that the age range that its activities covers is from 13 to 25 years old, which is of course outwith the age of children in primary schools. Will the cabinet secretary confirm whether LGBT Youth Scotland is in breach of its charitable constitution and whether she has any grip on what is happening in our schools?
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 23 April 2024
Meghan Gallacher
I mentioned in my previous question that parents are concerned by the LGBT Youth Scotland scheme. That is not coming from me; it is coming from parents who are speaking to me about those issues and who want them to be voiced in Parliament. Recent reports have outlined that a mother had to change her daughter’s school after it emerged that, within months of joining an LGBT club, her daughter announced in a Christmas card to her family that she had become their trans son and signed off with the preferred name. The problem is that the school did not tell the parents that their daughter had been using a different name in school for months. The school had signed up to the charter scheme that is run by the Scottish National Party funded charity LGBT Youth Scotland.
The Government has slowly been eroding the role of parents in school settings. We need only look at the named persons act to see a prime example of that. Why will the Government not allow kids to be kids? Will the cabinet secretary review the LGBT Youth Scotland programme to ensure that young people are provided with appropriate materials and that parents are not excluded from their child’s learning experience?
