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 3052 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Clare Haughey
I call Brian Whittle to move or not move amendment 125.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Clare Haughey
There will be a division.
For
Gulhane, Sandesh (Glasgow) (Con)
Mackay, Gillian (Central Scotland) (Green)
Mochan, Carol (South Scotland) (Lab)
Sweeney, Paul (Glasgow) (Lab)
Whittle, Brian (South Scotland) (Con)
Against
Dunbar, Jackie (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP)
FitzPatrick, Joe (Dundee City West) (SNP)
Harper, Emma (South Scotland) (SNP)
Haughey, Clare (Rutherglen) (SNP)
Whitham, Elena (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (SNP)
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Clare Haughey
Amendment 129 was already debated with amendment 128. I call Paul Sweeney to move or not move amendment 129.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Clare Haughey
I call Brian Whittle to wind up and to press or seek to withdraw amendment 116.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Clare Haughey
I call Brian Whittle to wind up and indicate whether he wishes to press or seek to withdraw amendment 91.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Clare Haughey
The result of the division is: For 4, Against 5, Abstentions 1.
Amendment 91 disagreed to.
Amendment 69 moved—[Gillian Mackay]—and agreed to.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
National Care Service (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Clare Haughey
Amendment 41, in the name of the minister, has already been debated with amendment 91. I remind members that, if amendment 41 is agreed to, I cannot call amendment 70 because of pre-emption.
Amendment 41 moved—[Maree Todd]—and agreed to.
Amendment 92 not moved.
Amendment 93 moved—[Brian Whittle].
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Skye House (Care of Children)
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Clare Haughey
I remind members that I hold a bank nurse contract with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
The culture in respect of and the attitude to the rights of service users that are reported to have been shown by some staff in Skye house are hugely concerning. Can the minister advise how the Scottish Government will champion the rights of vulnerable children and young people who use services such as Skye house and ensure that all staff are fully trained on the welfare of patients and are cognisant of the rights of all children and young people?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2025
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Clare Haughey
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests. I am a registered mental health nurse and hold a current registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and I am employed as a bank nurse by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
I am pleased to speak in the debate, which has become an annual fixture in the Parliament, to mark eating disorders awareness week. I thank my colleague Emma Harper for lodging the motion and for her commitment to bringing the subject to the chamber and focusing minds on how important it is.
Eating disorders do not discriminate and anyone can be affected by them. They are serious illnesses that can change, and even end, lives. The eating disorders charity Beat estimates that at least one in 50 people in Scotland are living with an eating disorder, but the real number could be even higher. Disorders such as ARFID, anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder and OSFED are complex mental health conditions. Of course, they affect not only the person with the condition but their family and friends, who can feel helpless and heartbroken as they watch their loved ones struggle.
With that level of prevalence, most of us probably know someone who is, or who has been, affected. That is why the focus of this year’s eating disorders awareness week is that eating disorders can affect anyone, regardless of their age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity or background, and it is not always those whom we might expect. Eating disorders are often misunderstood, mislabelled or undiagnosed, which can prevent people from reaching out for help.
The risk of not receiving support and treatment for any mental illness can be incredibly dangerous, and that is even more true for eating disorders. Together, they are responsible for more loss of life than any other form of psychological illness, and anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. When they are not fatal, such disorders can still lead to severe long-term physical health consequences, such as organ damage and fertility issues, and can increase the risk of heart problems and type 2 diabetes.
This year, Beat’s eating disorders awareness week survey showed that four in five respondents answered that they would feel
“more comfortable opening up to others about their experiences if there was greater awareness and understanding of eating disorders.”
Respondents reported fearing
“stigma around saying they have an eating disorder due to misconceptions about who is affected and the lack of knowledge about how eating disorders present.”
Challenging those misconceptions can lead to people seeking help earlier, which can increase their chances of a full recovery.
The topic of stigma frequently arises when we talk about eating disorders; last year’s debate in Parliament underlined that with its focus on ARFID, which is a less well-known condition. In that debate, our colleague Kevin Stewart spoke about the fact that
“one in four people who develop an eating disorder is”
male and highlighted that there is still much work to be done to raise awareness of that fact and change attitudes to ensure that
“no one is afraid to come forward for help.”—[Official Report, 5 March 2024; c 90.]
Since I first spoke on the subject in the chamber, there has been much positive progress. The Scottish Government’s mental health and wellbeing strategy and delivery plan specifically mentions stigma as a phenomenon that requires a sustained effort to tackle. There has also been a national review of eating disorder services; the establishment of the national eating disorders network; and work with those with lived experience. Challenging stigma is not an easy task, especially as eating disorders are, by their nature, associated with deniability, secrecy, stigma and shame. However, to help and treat people and save lives, we must all rise to that challenge.
I again thank Beat for all that it does to that end and for the material that it has provided for this year’s awareness week. I recommend Beat’s website and helplines as a trustworthy, reliable and judgment-free source of support to anyone who is concerned about themselves or about a friend, colleague or loved one.
18:17Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, and Social Justice and Social Security Committee (Joint Meeting) [Draft]
Tackling Drug Deaths and Drug Harm
Meeting date: 20 February 2025
Clare Haughey
Good morning to you, cabinet secretary, and to your officials.
You will have heard us discussing the issue of naloxone with the previous panel. The people’s panel called for an additional public awareness campaign for the distribution and use of the substance, and you stated in your response to the report that you will give further consideration to that recommendation and discuss it with partners. Can you provide the committee with more detail of what that might involve and, possibly, a timescale for that work?
