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.
Filter your results Hide all filters
Displaying 3359 contributions
|
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
Before I speak about the police—I will speak to Derek Frew about that, obviously—I want to go back to something that Dr Williams said. I raised the difficulty that people face in getting to see a GP in our evidence session last week. It has become much more difficult. You almost have to get past the receptionist, whereas before, you could phone up, ask for an appointment and be given one. Now people have to explain what is wrong with them to somebody who is not a GP. I do not know whether you agree with me, but that must put people off, particularly people with mental health issues. They may not want to discuss it, so people will be put off and we will miss people. What do you think about that?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
We could spend ages on that subject, but I will move on.
I want to chat to Derek Frew about the police’s involvement in mental health cases, because that has been a big concern of mine for a while now, having spoken to police in my patch. Both the convener and I represent Central Scotland, which includes Lanarkshire. When I speak to the police there—I think that, nationwide, other police say the same—they tell me that the amount of time that officers spend dealing with mental health cases can be very great. The figure that I was given locally was that 80 per cent of cases involve mental health issues, which I found astonishing.
I have also heard locally that there have been incidents where entire shifts of officers have had to sit with people in accident and emergency and so have been unable to deal with other cases. That seems to me to be a ludicrous situation and not a good use of resources. I ask you to comment on that initially, then we will move on.
Meeting of the Parliament
Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement.
Islanders who were hoping for some clarity on how ferries will be run, by whom and for how long, will be bewildered by what has just been said. Scotland’s ferry system is not working, our ageing ferries are unreliable, and the procurement and confused governance system is not fit for purpose.
The minister said that the status quo is not an option. I agree, but it is difficult to see how anything that has been announced today is anything but the status quo. Perhaps the minister can explain how it is. Far from announcing a new model that would give hope to islanders, the minister has kicked the can down the road. She said that she wants to explore a direct award to CalMac. With the current contract fast running out, maybe she feels that that is the only route left. How long does she want the next contract to run for? She did not say. If a direct award is not allowed, how quickly can a new tender process be completed?
The minister has previously said that she believes that the tripartite structure should change, so why has she not made a decision on a new arrangement? Does she not recognise that any such change should go hand in hand with a new contract award?
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
The “Independent Review of Audiology Services in Scotland”, which I assume is what the minister was referring to, noted:
“there are many areas ripe for improvement, and there is a huge appetite for change.”
It found
“multiple, systemic problems within audiology services in NHS Scotland.”
Will the minister set out a timeline for such improvement?
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to carry out its commitment to put community audiology services on a par with free community eye care services. (S6O-02738)
Meeting of the Parliament
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
I can tell the First Minister that at least 150 motorists are being wrongly issued fines every month for driving through Glasgow’s low-emission zone, and that Glasgow City Council says that it does not know what to do with the colossal sums—£0.5 million so far—that it is raising. Should it not have sorted that out before introducing this botched scheme?
Meeting of the Parliament
Ferguson Marine
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Graham Simpson
Many people would have been hoping for good news about the future of the yard. Workers will be watching this and feeling a sense of despair.
A cross-party group of MSPs wrote to the cabinet secretary on 7 September saying that investment in a new plating line is essential if the yard is to become competitive. David Tydeman asked for tens of millions of pounds for that—perhaps the cabinet secretary can say what the exact figure is—and he has been clear that a decision is time critical, but the cabinet secretary has said today that he cannot proceed. He talks about securing a future based on a promising order book, but there will be no such order book without that investment.
The cabinet secretary also talks about needing to see a revised business plan. Will he tell us what is lacking from the one that is before him? Does he genuinely think that the yard has a future without the further time-critical investment that has been asked for? It certainly does not feel that way.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
Graham Simpson
What questions did you ask? If you ask, “Do you get stressed about things?”, most people will say yes. It depends on what you ask and how you phrase a question.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
Graham Simpson
I am glad that you have injected some positivity. I know that you have to shoot off, so I will let you go, but thanks for that—I appreciate it.
I will put my next question just to Jo Anderson, because we are up against the clock. You mentioned outcomes, and the report states:
“The Scottish Government does not measure the quality of services or outcomes for people receiving mental healthcare.”
That seems to me to be a huge oversight. If you accept that the situation should be rectified, how should it be rectified, and what kind of things should we measure?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
Graham Simpson
That is possibly a question for the Scottish Government, and we will have it in at some point.
I have a separate question about something that arises in the report. This is not necessarily a question for Jo Anderson—I am just looking at you because you are in the room, but it could be for anyone. The report says that spending on medicines to deal with mental health has gone down, because the cost of drugs has gone down, but that the number of items being dispensed has gone up. Does anyone have a view on whether it is appropriate that we are prescribing more and more drugs? Are there better ways of dealing with mental health issues? Is it too easy to prescribe drugs?
I see someone nodding, and I think that it is Simon Porter, so he might want to come in on that.
