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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Meeting of the Parliament
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill: Reconsideration Stage
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Meghan Gallacher
Thank you, Presiding Officer. They do not want to hear it, but it is fact.
Had the Scottish National Party got things right almost three years ago, we would already have known what listed authorities are doing and are planning to do to improve the rights of children.
We have not lodged any amendments on this matter, but it is important to highlight that point.
Meeting of the Parliament
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Meghan Gallacher
The reconsideration of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill has been two long years in the making. Before I get into the cut and thrust of the bill, it is important to draw members’ attention to the progress that has been made to improve children’s rights across our United Kingdom.
Although the UNCRC was introduced in Scotland on 1 September 2020, its original journey began in 1991, before the creation of the Scottish Parliament and—without trying to make anyone in the chamber feel old—before I or any of the young people in the public gallery were born.
I will briefly address the wonderful young representatives who are in the chamber this afternoon. Today is for you because, if the bill passes, it will incorporate children’s rights into devolved Scottish law. It is a milestone on Scotland’s journey towards making rights real in practical terms and it will add to the existing protections that are already in place.
However, this momentous occasion has not been an easy process, and this is where I will be critical of the Scottish Government. The Scottish National Party ignore several warnings from the Scottish Conservatives that the original bill would not be lawful. However, the Scottish Government did not heed those warnings, and we found ourselves having to go through the courts to bring through legislation that is within the Parliament’s devolved competence.
Meeting of the Parliament
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Meghan Gallacher
That is precisely right. The SNP must reflect on that today, because we are two years behind where we should be with this very important bill. Some of the young people who were involved with the UNCRC process in 2018 will probably no longer consider themselves to be young, because it has taken so long for us to get the bill back to the Scottish Parliament.
That being said, the Scottish Conservatives will be supporting the bill at stage 3 today. We know how much it means to children and young people across Scotland, because it incorporates into Scots law the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, including political, economic, social and cultural rights. It places a legal duty on public authorities to act within UNCRC requirements, and it allows children, young people and their representatives to use the legal system to enforce their rights.
Even if it is passed today, the bill will probably not come without its challenges, and there are some outstanding questions. What happens next is the key one. Together Scotland has urged the Scottish Government to answer key questions that are still outstanding. One of them relates to the continuation of the UNCRC implementation programme. The three-year UNCRC implementation programme is set to conclude in March 2024. Together Scotland, alongside other organisations, has asked for that timeframe to be extended. That would allow time to include resources for children and young people, and for adults, to support them to understand their rights, and other measures to ensure a holistic approach that aligns with the existing policies and structures, such as the Promise and getting it right for every child. If the cabinet secretary could expand on that in her closing statement, it would put organisations’ minds at rest, as there is more to come following the bill. It is not just about the intent of the UNCRC but about the practical elements that will enforce the legislation, because they must also be upheld.
That brings me to my final point today. Time and again, we have heard that the bill will be transformational, and it will be. As a member of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, I heard the story of Shirley-Anne Spider, the cabinet secretary who created the web for the UNCRC to be built on. I am not sure that the cabinet secretary or I would ever have expected that type of imagery to be used, but it sends an important message.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Meghan Gallacher
The key phrase in that quotation was “many aspects”.
The Roberton report sets out the extremely complex landscape of Scotland’s legal services regulation, which can often be difficult for the public to understand. Why is the bill making it even more complicated for members of the public to understand?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Meghan Gallacher
No.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Meghan Gallacher
That does not echo the evidence that we have heard in the committee so far. Is it fair to say that, as the bill stands—we have not seen amendments thus far—you have managed to upset all sides of the debate surrounding legal regulation in Scotland?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Meghan Gallacher
How will striking the right balance be measured?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Meghan Gallacher
On the back of the discussions that we have had, I am struggling to understand. There seems to be a chicken-and-egg situation here. We have had to take evidence on a bill that will be substantially amended. Minister, why did you think that it was appropriate for ministers to be directly appointed as a legal regulator? Why has there not been more engagement regarding the amendments? As Paul O’Kane rightly said, the devil is in the detail, but the committee does not know that detail and it seems that senior professionals in the legal field do not know that detail. If you had concerns back in August, when you were getting evidence in response to the call for views, why did you not begin engagement then? I feel that we are clambering around trying to find a way to scrutinise legislation that we will have to look at all over again when we come back after the new year.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Meghan Gallacher
My question is on the issue that Maggie Chapman has raised about striking the right balance between the consumer and the legal profession. We have heard a lot about that this morning, but we have had no real explanation of how it is measured. We need the minister to explain that to the committee and the public. Will the minister summarise the reforms that the bill will bring in a way that will be easy for the public to understand? I am not sure that we are in that space yet, given the discussion that we have had this morning.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Meghan Gallacher
Minister, we heard from Esther Roberton last week. I am a little bit confused. Why, despite commissioning it, did the Government reject her report recommending a single legal regulator in Scotland?
