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.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
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.
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.
There are two types of keyword search:
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.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
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:
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.
Displaying 1838 contributions
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Pauline McNeill
Can I stop you there? I agree with what you are saying; everyone has a responsibility in this regard. However, I am asking you a specific question. A lot of us have done some work on what we think needs to be done in school, but it is a complex question. If the Government is to support a programme of domestic abuse education in school, it must know what the right programme will be. Do you agree that that is complex?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Pauline McNeill
So they would all be subject to the MAPPA requirements.
Pam, I think that you said that the provision is modelled on the sex offenders register. If you are not able to answer any of these questions, that is fine, but these are the ones that interest me. Have you done any assessment of how effective the sex offenders register has been in improving safety or reducing reoffending?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Pauline McNeill
You said that you think that the sex offenders register has resulted in a reduction in repeat offences—recidivism.
10:30Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Pauline McNeill
So, is it both?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Pauline McNeill
Good morning. I will start with some technical questions, the answers to which should be short.
I just want to be clear. Charlie, you have already said that the provisions relate to those who are convicted on indictment in solemn proceedings and those who receive a 12-month sentence. Am I right that the 12-month period relates to the sentence?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Pauline McNeill
So that might not necessarily be jail time.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Pauline McNeill
Anyone?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Pauline McNeill
Well, I am going to make a suggestion. I hope that you would agree that we need to have a wider discussion. With regard to your bill, you have said that you think that the solution is telling boys that domestic abuse is wrong—
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Pauline McNeill
But I am suggesting that—
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Pauline McNeill
For stabbing a man, Alexandria Stewart, formerly known as Alan Baker, is serving a life sentence in Greenock prison’s women’s wing. Lawyer Paul Lynch was forced to ask four times for the criminal record of that offender, whose offences disappeared when they changed their name, due to the self-identification policy that has been in existence. Mr Lynch was told by the Crown Office that Stewart had no previous convictions. Only after Paul Lynch sent a link to an online news story about Baker’s murder conviction was the error rectified.
The policy has done deep damage. Does the cabinet secretary agree that a full investigation should be conducted to ensure that the impact of the policy is fully rectified so that criminal records are disclosed to the courts and are as accurate as they should have been in the first place?