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 3582 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Jackson Carlaw
I think that we can accommodate all that. Are we content to proceed on that basis?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Jackson Carlaw
Clearly, the 1983 ban would have been introduced pre-devolution. The ban in 2006 was post-devolution, so I do not know whether we were following any national advice at the time. The issue is whether, by extending our investigation into all that, we become better informed of the circumstances but no further forward with regard to taking the petition anywhere, because the direction from the Scottish Government and Food Standards Scotland is clear. I just wonder what the mood of colleagues is. Mr Torrance has proposed that we close the petition on that basis, but how are other colleagues minded?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Jackson Carlaw
Are we minded to close the petition but nonetheless think that it is worth while to ask the question, so that we have the answer to hand? What do you think, Mr Ewing? I think that Mr Sweeney is erring on the side of exploring things a bit further before we close the petition.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Jackson Carlaw
The petition is important, and we will take forward the issues that it raises.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Jackson Carlaw
That makes perfect sense.
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Jackson Carlaw
Being candid, I admit to having had a significant prostate cancer concern at the start of the pandemic, which had a bearing on decisions that I made in my personal and professional life at the time. Notwithstanding the constraints of the pandemic, the treatment that I received was comprehensive, professional and timely. I think that the key thing—I hope that the cabinet secretary agrees—is that men who have any of the symptoms that are associated with prostate cancer must not be concerned about any embarrassment that they might feel arising from that, and that they must present themselves to the health service at the earliest possible opportunity. By doing that, I hope that they can, like me, expect to survive safely. [Applause.]
Meeting of the Parliament
Surgical Mesh and Fixation Devices
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Jackson Carlaw
Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Meeting of the Parliament
Surgical Mesh and Fixation Devices
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Jackson Carlaw
I think that politicians across the chamber, including those in the Government, accept that patients who have suffered in this way need to be believed. Rona Mackay, who is the convener of the cross-party group on chronic pain, has, along with me and others, heard repeatedly from individuals that, unfortunately, that is not always their experience when speaking to clinicians.
Meeting of the Parliament
Surgical Mesh and Fixation Devices
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Jackson Carlaw
I have now heard Dr Gulhane say that he has inserted mesh into other people. Were he to be diagnosed with a hernia and told that it must be repaired, would his preference be to have mesh inserted into him or to have a natural tissue repair?
Meeting of the Parliament
Surgical Mesh and Fixation Devices
Meeting date: 17 January 2023
Jackson Carlaw
Mr Johnson raises a valid point. The evidence that we have taken has related more directly to the issues that have been raised by the petition, but he raises an important consideration. I would be interested to hear the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care address that point.
The committee heard that surgical mesh has become the preferred method for hernia repair worldwide, with evidence suggesting that using mesh in hernia repair reduces recurrence. Nonetheless, a small minority of surgeons prefer to use natural tissue repair and will use mesh only as a last resort.
During our deliberations, we heard from experts at Shouldice hospital, in Canada. For those who may not be familiar with that unique hospital, I highlight that it is the only licensed hospital in the world that is dedicated to hernia repairs. We are particularly grateful to Dr Fernando Spencer Netto, who is a surgeon at Shouldice, for taking the time to meet the committee during a virtual evidence session last May.
Anyone who views the evidence that we heard from Shouldice hospital cannot fail to be impressed by its results. Dr Spencer Netto told us that the hospital carries out 6,000 to 6,500 procedures each year, around 99 per cent of which do not use mesh. The specialist focus on natural tissue repair has resulted in Shouldice having one of the lowest rates of hernia recurrence. Indeed, its recurrence rate is around three times lower than that of the hospital with the second-lowest rate of recurrence.
Presiding Officer, I see that I am very close to the time by which I must finish. I will conclude with the words of one of the petitioners. Roseanna Clarkin told us:
“We feel the Scottish Government have completely ignored us over the past 8 years.”
That is how the petitioners feel. She continued:
“We have campaigned alongside the transvaginal mesh women ... We always knew we would have to fight for better healthcare together ... This petition is our last chance to get what we feel should have already been in place.”
I am pleased that the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee can play a part in ensuring that Roseanna, Lauren and all those who continue to campaign with them will have their voices heard.
I move,
That the Parliament notes public petition PE1865 on suspending the use of all surgical mesh and fixation devices while a review of all surgical procedures which use polyester, polypropylene or titanium is carried out, and guidelines for the surgical use of mesh are established.
15:08