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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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Jackson Carlaw
You made reference to a survey. Is that a new survey?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Jackson Carlaw
I am pleased to say that Rhoda Grant has a season ticket to the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee this morning. She joins us, along with Liam McArthur MSP, for petition PE1804, which is on Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd’s air traffic management strategy. The petition, which was lodged by Alasdair MacEachen, John Doig and Peter Henderson on behalf of Benbecula community council, calls on the Scottish Government to halt HIAL’s air traffic management strategy project and to conduct an independent assessment of the decisions and decision-making process of the ATMS project.
The clerk’s note summarises the extensive actions that were taken on the petition during session 5, which included holding oral evidence sessions with the petitioners, representatives of HIAL and the then Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity.
Since the petition was last considered, we have received four submissions: two from HIAL, one from the cabinet secretary and one from the petitioners, all of which have been circulated as part of our meeting papers.
I invite our two visiting MSP colleagues to comment before committee members do so. Since he has been waiting for his moment in the sun, I invite Liam McArthur to comment first.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Jackson Carlaw
I am sorry—when was that? Is that a new development, or was the committee previously aware of it?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Jackson Carlaw
Do we know whether the round-table event took place?
The clerks are not sure. We want to confirm whether that event took place. If it did, it would be sensible to establish any outcomes from it.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Jackson Carlaw
That meets with the general agreement of the committee.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Jackson Carlaw
There was a members’ business debate on the issue in session 5, which, from memory, was led by Alexander Burnett.
Do members agree to take that approach?
Members indicated agreement.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Jackson Carlaw
Now that we have heard from Christine Grahame and read the submissions, I turn to colleagues for their comments.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Jackson Carlaw
I was struck by Emma Harper’s advocacy of holding off a round-table discussion until we see a little more about where things are going. However, we can still reserve the right to come back to that. We should be clear that we will write to the UK Government about the A75. Do committee colleagues agree to that?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Jackson Carlaw
The next continued petition is PE1662, on improving treatment for patients with Lyme disease and associated tick-borne diseases, which was lodged by Janey Cringean and Lorraine Murray on behalf of Tick-borne Illness Campaign Scotland. The petition calls on the Scottish Government
“to improve testing and treatment for Lyme disease and associated tick-borne diseases by ensuring that medical professionals in Scotland are fully equipped to deal with the complexity of tick-borne infections, addressing the lack of reliability of tests, the full variety of species in Scotland, the presence of ‘persister’ bacteria which are difficult to eradicate, and the complexities caused by the presence of possibly multiple co-infections, and to complement this with a public awareness campaign.”
When the petition was considered previously, in February 2021, the session 5 committee took evidence from the then Minister for Public Health and Sport, Mairi Gougeon, who was supported by Scottish Government officials Dr Gill Hawkins, the senior medical officer for health protection and public health, and Professor Tom Evans, the chief medical officer’s specialty adviser on infectious diseases. During the session, the minister stated that the Scottish Government was
“committed to supporting people with Lyme disease, finding new and better diagnostic and treatment tools, and trying to prevent it in the first place.”—[Official Report, Public Petitions Committee, 24 February 2021; c 2.]
It was revealed that the Scottish Government would soon be holding a round-table event that would bring together clinicians, patient representatives and public health experts to discuss testing, treatment and raising awareness. The minister confirmed that the Scottish Government was keen to develop an infectious diseases managed clinical network and that consideration of Lyme disease would be included in its workstream. The minister and her officials also agreed that more research was needed to underpin the development of better treatment options, particularly for people with longer-term symptoms.
Do colleagues have any comments or suggestions that they would like to make?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 8 September 2021
Jackson Carlaw
The next continued petition is PE1723, on essential tremor treatment in Scotland, which was lodged by Mary Ramsay. We are joined for consideration of the petition by Rhoda Grant MSP. The petition calls on the Scottish Government to raise awareness of essential tremor and to support the introduction and use of a focused ultrasound scanner to treat people in Scotland who have the condition.
The session 5 committee previously considered the petition at its meeting on 10 March 2021. At that meeting, the committee agreed to keep the petition open and to include it in its legacy paper for its session 6 successor committee colleagues—us—along with a suggestion to seek an update from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on the Scottish Government’s plans to make an application to the national specialist services committee for a magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound—which is actually easier to say than MRgFUS—service. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound is a relatively new treatment for essential tremor, which uses magnetic resonance imaging to guide powerful focused ultrasound to a small point in the body, causing an intense local heat that can destroy tissue.
The Scottish Government highlighted guidelines that were published in June 2018 by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which is commonly known as NICE, on the use of unilateral magnetic resonance imaging-guided focused ultrasound thalamotomy for treatment-resistant essential tremor. It concludes that although clinical evidence does not raise safety concerns, current evidence of efficacy is limited. Therefore, evidence of patient benefit is currently too limited for the national health service to adopt MRI-guided ultrasound technology for treatment of essential tremor.
The Scottish Government notes that the national specialist services committee met in December 2018 to consider a stage 1 application for specialist treatment of patients with ET using magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound. The committee was unable to endorse the application for funding as a nationally designated service. It was highlighted that NICE guidance is “permissive”, and although there is some evidence for use of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound in essential tremor, there is a clear statement that research is needed into its application for Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis tremor.
The NSSC was clear that, should the evidence base be further developed and magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound be recognised as a safe and effective intervention for treatment of tremor, the committee would be willing to consider a reapplication.
On 16 December 2020, our predecessor committee took evidence from Professor Dipankar Nandi, who is a consultant neurosurgeon and head of department at Charing Cross hospital and St Mary’s hospital, and a professor at Imperial College London. Our meeting papers summarise the evidence from that meeting.
In her submission, the petitioner advised that her tremors and the lack of understanding surrounding them have impacted on her entire life. She does not believe that there is a need for further research into and evidence of the effectiveness of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound before the Scottish Government backs it. She notes that the treatment for essential tremor is currently available on Medicare in the USA and on the NHS in Japan, and in other countries around Europe.
When referencing the progress made by NHS England, the petitioner concludes that she believes that
“while England is proceeding a pace with providing this treatment, unfortunately Scotland is falling behind as the costs for bringing it to Scotland are”
simultaneously
“increasing.”
Before I turn to colleagues, I invite Rhoda Grant to speak in support of the petition.
