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 1824 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee
Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
Thank you.
Criminal Justice Committee
Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
You might feel, again, that you are not able to answer my next question. We have heard about the importance of information being provided to the sheriff and the court. In the previous session, we were told that there was better provision of social workers in the courts back in the 1990s and early 2000s. That is quite anecdotal, so there might be great geographical differences in the levels of provision. Are you able to point us towards any evidence or work that has been done on the availability of that support in the courts? It is a resource issue rather than necessarily a legal issue. Do you have any experience of that?
Criminal Justice Committee
Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
When somebody is already in custody for something else so that there is no possibility that they would be getting released anyway, is that perhaps an example of an exception?
Criminal Justice Committee
Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
It was pointed out to us that the interests of children need to be a top priority. To what extent would you get involved in getting sufficient information about that? Would you have to refer to other agencies?
Criminal Justice Committee
Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
I think that the problem is that we might end up in the same place, but there might be a lot of appeals before we end up in that place.
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
The Scottish Government’s ending of free testing last April has led to some of the poorest people in society being priced out of accessing lateral flow tests, which now cost an average of £9 for a pack of five. That decision is at odds with the Covid-19 recovery strategy’s aim of supporting low-income households. Given the current high Covid rates, will the Scottish Government review its strategy and explore the feasibility of reintroducing free tests?
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
Unite the union’s get me home safely campaign calls on councils to make free safe transport home for late-night workers a requirement for new and extended alcohol licences, and some councils such as North Ayrshire Council and East Dunbartonshire Council have backed the campaign. Will the Scottish Government explore making the provision of safe transport home for late-night workers a condition of future support for hospitality businesses?
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Katy Clark
Has the cabinet secretary had the opportunity to look at the report published earlier this week by the University of Edinburgh, which reviewed the experiences of victims and witnesses in domestic abuse cases since the passing of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018? The report found that, despite that legislation, domestic abuse victims still find the justice system traumatic. What further action does the cabinet secretary believe can be taken to reduce the trauma that domestic abuse survivors experience in the justice system?
Meeting of the Parliament
Surgical Mesh and Fixation Devices
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Katy Clark
I thank the member for that helpful intervention. Yes, we should look at what is happening there and around the world. Jackie Baillie already mentioned the decision in Canada to suspend the use of mesh.
The Scottish Government must apologise for its failure to date to act on the concerns of mesh patients and should establish a compensation scheme to support those individuals as they attempt to overcome the pain and damage that mesh has caused them. Many of the campaigners on the issue now live with life-changing conditions that are directly linked to the mesh procedures that they underwent.
Although transvaginal mesh and its complications affected the lives of so many women, as we have heard, the use of other products to treat conditions such as hernias affect women, men and sometimes children, too. However, despite the testimonies that the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee received from patients affected by the use of mesh, the true extent of the damage caused by those products remains unclear. Indeed, there have already been several calls in this debate for more data and for evidence to be obtained.
In her evidence to the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee back in June, the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport admitted that it was not easy to trace what products had been used in all procedures and which were causing harm. However, despite the lack of regulation on its use, NHS Scotland continues to use mesh in surgical procedures. From 2016 to 2020, 62 per cent of all hernia repairs carried out by NHS Scotland used mesh. That is why I join campaigners in their call for an independent review of mesh and fixation devices.
We cannot establish the true scale of the damage that those mesh products have caused to the lives of so many patients across Scotland until we get the data and the evidence. Until that review is completed, the Scottish Government must order health boards to suspend the use of surgical mesh and fixation devices and to use other procedures instead.
We need to put protections for patients in place. There needs to be clear guidance governing the surgical use of mesh. I believe that we need to suspend the use of mesh, but there may well be situations where its use is essential and no other alternatives are available. That must happen only when patients have given their informed consent to its use. It is disturbing that so many of the patients who contacted the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee did not give their consent.
I am very grateful to the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee for giving us the time to explore the issues today. I hope that the cabinet secretary will agree to meet the petitioners to take forward the issues that have been raised in the debate.
16:04Meeting of the Parliament
Surgical Mesh and Fixation Devices
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Katy Clark
I thank the petitioners: Roseanna Clarkin, a mesh-injured woman who has suffered chronic debilitating pain and life-altering injury after a procedure for a hernia; and Lauren McDougall, whose mother Michele McDougall suffered 18 years of pain as the result of a surgical mesh procedure before dying of a rare cancer. Neither Roseanna nor Michele had given their assent to mesh being used. Having met both Roseanna and Lauren, I know the pain and damage that mesh has caused in their lives and why they now seek the support from the Scottish Government that they deserve. Roseanna and Lauren have met a number of politicians, but they have not yet met the cabinet secretary. I ask that he consider meeting them to hear of their experiences at first hand. I asked Roseanna Clarkin what her top ask from the debate would be. She said that it was for patient pathways to be provided for all those who have been injured by mesh, rather than each individual having to fight for medical support.
The petition that they lodged in the Scottish Parliament is backed by powerful testimonies from more than 70 mesh patients and their families. It is clear what action they are asking from the Scottish Government. We need to accept that people are still having mesh implanted in Scotland. The Scottish Government must suspend the use of all surgical mesh and fixation devices while an independent review takes place.
Mesh is a cheaper option, but there are other options—the petitioners believed that pig skin should have been used in their procedures. The Scottish Government must provide greater healthcare support for patients who are mesh injured. It must increase access to specialist care, including mesh removal surgery and alternative treatments.
