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 1745 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 13 May 2025
Clare Haughey
My colleague Gillian Mackay asked Mr Ball a question about in-person meetings for a treatment determination. Section 2(1)(d) of the bill says:
“the treatment determination is made following a meeting in person between the relevant health professional and the patient”.
Given that the member who in charge of the bill is currently in the room and will have heard the concerns that were raised by the witnesses about that particular issue, I am sure that he will reflect on that and perhaps be able to speak to the committee about that particular subsection of the bill when he is in front of us in a couple of weeks’ time.
I thank the witnesses for their attendance and for their evidence. The committee will meet again next Tuesday, when we will further consider the Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill.
12:19 Meeting continued in private until 12:47.Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 13 May 2025
Clare Haughey
I have a follow-up question. Justina, you talked about resources. As an organisation, does SFAD feel that the resources that could be put in, were the bill enacted, would be better placed bolstering services and addressing some of the issues that you raise—advocacy and access to services such as housing and benefits, for example? Would that be more beneficial in the long run?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 13 May 2025
Clare Haughey
Good morning, and welcome to the 14th meeting in 2025 of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. I have received no apologies.
Agenda item 1 is a decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take item 4 in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 13 May 2025
Clare Haughey
I call Emma Harper.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 13 May 2025
Clare Haughey
I will bring in Mr Whittle.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 13 May 2025
Clare Haughey
Thank you for your attendance today.
I briefly suspend the meeting to allow for a changeover of witnesses.
10:30 Meeting suspended.10:42 On resuming—
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Clare Haughey
Welcome to the 13th meeting in 2025 of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. I have received no apologies.
Agenda item 1 is a decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take items 3 and 4 in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Clare Haughey
Minister, we are all aware of the smoking cessation programmes that operate across the country. However, if we are stopping single-use vapes and preventing young people from being able to buy vapes, we could be left with a population that has a nicotine addiction. Will you expand on some of the work that is being done to support young people to stop vaping? Has any work been done on nicotine replacement therapy for those who are affected?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Clare Haughey
No other member has indicated that they have any questions, so I thank the minister and her officials for attending today and for their evidence.
At our next meeting, on Tuesday 13 May, the committee will continue its scrutiny of the Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill by taking oral evidence from two panels of witnesses.
That concludes the public part of today’s meeting.
10:25 Meeting continued in private until 10:44.Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
Meeting date: 6 May 2025
Clare Haughey
The next item is an evidence-taking session with the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health and supporting officials on the United Kingdom Tobacco and Vapes Bill supplementary legislative consent memorandum LCM-S6-51a, which was lodged in the Scottish Parliament by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on 28 March 2025.
The legislative consent process, as set out in chapter 9B of standing orders, requires the Scottish Government to notify the Scottish Parliament, by means of a legislative consent memorandum, whenever a UK Parliament bill includes provision on devolved matters. Each LCM is referred to a lead committee to scrutinise and report on before the Scottish Parliament decides whether to give its consent to the UK Parliament legislating in the manner proposed.
The purpose of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which was introduced in the House of Commons on 5 November 2024, is to make provision on the supply of tobacco, vapes and other products, including provision prohibiting the sale of tobacco to people born on or after 1 January 2009; to make provision on the licensing of retail sales and the registration of retailers; to enable product and information requirements to be imposed in connection with tobacco, vapes and other products; to control the advertising and promotion of tobacco, vapes and other products; and to make provision on smoke-free places, vape-free places and heated tobacco-free places.
The committee previously took evidence from the minister on LCM-S6-51 at its meeting on 17 December 2024. On 18 March 2025, the UK Government tabled an amendment to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, inserting a new clause that extends only to Scotland. As the clause is not covered by the original LCM-S6-51, the need for supplementary LCM-S6-51a has been triggered, and that is the supplementary LCM that we are considering this morning. The new provision pertains to age verification and will give Scottish ministers the power to prescribe methods, including, but not limited to, the showing of a document, to establish a person’s age.
I welcome to the meeting Jenni Minto MSP, the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health; Professor Linda Bauld OBE, chief social policy adviser; Fiona Dill, teams leader, tobacco, gambling, diet and healthy weight directorate; and Rosie MacQueen, lawyer.
I invite the minister to make a brief opening statement.
