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 1445 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament
Point of Order
Meeting date: 4 December 2024
Tess White
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I seek your guidance after Patrick Harvie MSP inappropriately suggested earlier today that I was dragging Scotland’s culture sector into “Tory transphobic culture wars”. His comments followed a question that I raised about Creative Scotland’s support for free speech after a member of staff attempted to stop bookshops stocking the work of gender-critical author Jenny Lindsay.
I ask, under rule 7.3.1 of the Parliament’s standing orders, whether describing gender-critical views as “transphobic” is in line with the courteous and respectful manner that is expected of members in this chamber. It was disrespectful to the women and girls watching proceedings today. Those comments were shameful.
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2024
Tess White
To ask the Scottish Government when it expects its preparatory work to conclude and the review into Creative Scotland, which was announced in September 2024, to get under way. (S6O-04057)
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 4 December 2024
Tess White
Gender-critical author Jenny Lindsay wrote in her latest book, “Hounded”, that
“in a democracy … no person or group should be permitted to force their own subjective beliefs on those who take a contrary position”.
Yet, that is precisely what Creative Scotland did when a member of staff tried to prevent Ms Lindsay’s book from being stocked by bookshops because she was wrongly deemed to be transphobic. That was cultural authoritarianism at its worst.
The planned review into Creative Scotland is welcome, but can the cabinet secretary provide assurances that the process will look at the importance of protecting free speech for authors and artists who seek support for their work from a public body?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Tess White
Minister, that does not help people who are on delayed discharges and need packages of care or the integration joint boards. However, as you say, we could tussle all day on that.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Tess White
I look forward to seeing progress on the situations for those 84 learning disabled people who are in delayed discharge.
You touched on assessments and said that more work is needed. The committee heard concerns about waiting times for assessments and diagnosis that were not addressed in the LDAN consultation. What action is the Scottish Government taking to address a growing demand? You highlighted the huge demand for assessments.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Tess White
The issue that you talk about with psychiatrists is huge. There is no workforce plan and the issue has not shifted since I came into this job nearly four years ago.
Suzi Martin from the National Autistic Society Scotland shared with the committee last week that Scotland
“is already falling behind England, where … data on waiting times”
for autism and learning disability assessment
“is collected, disaggregated and published.”—[Official Report, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, 26 November 2024; c 5.]
How can the Scottish Government manage what it is not measuring in relation to assessments?
11:15Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Tess White
It would be good if you could look at the issue of assessments, because that is a huge area.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Tess White
As you know, people are falling between the cracks. I will leave that with you.
You mentioned CAMHS. In the NHS Tayside area in my region, the current waiting time for children who have been referred to its neurodevelopmental services is 154 weeks. That is almost three years. We know that children with autism and additional support needs are five times more likely to be excluded from school, but those children feel that they are being left in limbo through no fault of their own. What support is available to those children if they cannot access diagnosis and treatment?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Tess White
Minister, I will build on my colleague Paul O’Kane’s question about non-legislative interventions. You have described to the committee a host of work that is going on. However, you cannot manage what you do not measure. For example, of 181 people in hospital with learning difficulties and complex care needs, 84 were classified as delayed discharges, which is close to half. That is a huge issue. You said that you are struggling to effect change without the bill, but there are some key areas that you are accountable for. The LDAN bill has been delayed and the Scottish Government has finally conceded that the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill is not fit for purpose, and meanwhile the social care sector is in crisis. Therefore, what action is the Scottish Government taking now to ensure that adequate care is available in the community for people with learning disabilities and autism and neurodivergent people?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Tess White
But it is not able to do that.
I have two final questions. Following the Cass report, under-18s in Scotland will be screened for mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism, during initial assessments for gender dysphoria. The chief medical officer has confirmed that resources will need to be found to increase capacity. Given the exceptionally long waits for autism assessments, what progress, if any, has been made in that regard?
