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 1539 contributions
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Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 19 November 2025
Miles Briggs
The issue that we are discussing is important, because, over the past 10 years, we have seen the loss of a lot of those facilities, and many others are telling us that they are under threat. Local authorities have ownership of some of those properties, and I am interested in future capital assessments that might take place. The minister has outlined some of what that would look like, but how does Liz Smith envision that that will be captured in terms of the future investment that is needed?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 19 November 2025
Miles Briggs
I agree with what the minister says. When we look at where we are delivering in Scotland—in my local authority here in Edinburgh but also in Aberdeenshire and Glasgow—it is important that we see that flexibility around negotiation for teachers has actually delivered that capacity. It is really important that teachers are actively buying into and wanting to see this experience for their young people. I do not support the amendments in this group, because I think that they would complicate that picture even further.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 19 November 2025
Miles Briggs
I congratulate Liz Smith on the work that she has done on the bill and for being the first MSP to congratulate Steve Clarke and the national team—we are receiving email after email about it—although I thought that the convener would be the first to do so.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 19 November 2025
Miles Briggs
One of the interesting points that the committee noted when we visited the centres was that they were built in the 1940s—following the Education Act 1944 in England and Wales and the Education (Scotland) Act 1945—which was the last time that there was a focus on and significant investment in that area of education. The bill gives us an opportunity for us to have a reset in that regard, but in very different circumstances in terms of the sorts of facilities that we would expect. What work will be done with the centres, which are often run by private or charitable organisations, on what that investment might look like over that period? I hope that the bill will result in additional funds being given to the centres, but I also hope that, as part of the centres’ business models, other groups will come in and use them, which would create more cash flow for them to invest in their facilities.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 19 November 2025
Miles Briggs
Will the minister give way?
09:45Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Miles Briggs
I do not have anything further to add. BMA Scotland, which I have been working with on a number of amendments, is very much in favour of ensuring that it has legal clarity as proposed, so I will press amendment 195.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Miles Briggs
Will the member take an intervention?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Miles Briggs
For most doctors I have spoken to about my amendments, it has been about their professional judgment. They know their patients best. Depending on where someone is on whatever pathway they are on, whether they have a six-month terminal diagnosis for whatever condition and comorbidities—it is important to look at those—doctors will be dealing with that patient on a daily basis and so they will want to know whether it is appropriate for them to raise the issue. I hope that amendment 195 will provide that clarity for professionals.
BMA members have discussed the fact that some patients find it difficult to bring up sensitive subjects during consultations. I believe that doctors are skilled at reading between the lines of what a patient wants to say.
19:00Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Miles Briggs
For clarity, it relates to all doctors who would operate within the scope of the bill. That legal clarity is important, as it would provide protections for medical practitioners, regardless of whether they choose to raise the option of assisted dying. It is an important ask from medical professionals that this is in the bill.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Miles Briggs
That would apply to all medical professionals and the eligibility created by the bill would also provide the legal framework for having those conversations. We are talking about the circumstance of a skilled doctor gently opening the door to those conversations, if they felt that that would be appropriate for a patient, and then allowing the patient to walk through into a safe space where they can discuss what is on their mind. The idea of eligibility in the bill is still being debated and looked at, but that would point towards whether a referral can be made.
Any prohibition on raising the idea of assisted dying would tie doctors’ hands and would create uncertainty and legal risks that would inhibit effective doctor-patient communication and understanding, which we all know is important.
I apologise for going on at length, but amendment 195 is important because it is important to consider those sensitive conversations and to ensure that our professionals have a space where they feel they can raise the subject.
