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, and Social Justice and Social Security Committee (Joint Meeting) [Draft]
Tackling Drug Deaths and Drug Harm
Meeting date: 20 February 2025
Clare Haughey
I have another short supplementary question, but I should first declare an interest as someone who holds a bank nurse contract with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
I want to ask about an issue that was raised by the people’s panel—I suppose it comes under the theme of harm reduction—which is GPs being unaware of the MAT standards, which were introduced in 2021. When I went on the Turas website, I saw quite comprehensive learning resources and information, including the package “Working with Substance Use, Trauma and Mental Health—Resources and Training for the Scottish Workforce”. From my reading, that has been there since 2021, and I would be greatly concerned if GPs had not been accessing it. I wonder whether the cabinet secretary could see whether some of the data that sits behind that could be disaggregated, so that we could see who has been accessing it and, if it is shown that GPs have not been accessing it, perhaps work with the chief medical officer to encourage them to do so. The data on the number of people with mental health issues who also have substance misuse issues—and who, indeed, have suffered trauma—is out there, and the fact is that quite comprehensive training is available.
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 20 February 2025
Clare Haughey
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the social justice secretary has had with the United Kingdom Government regarding the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign and potential compensation for women in Scotland. (S6O-04340)
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 20 February 2025
Clare Haughey
The Labour UK Government, like the Tories before it, has failed the WASPI women. Before taking power, countless Labour politicians pledged a resolution, yet now they try to gaslight the very same women, claiming that most were aware of the state pension age changes and should not be given compensation. That is certainly not the view that is held by many of the WASPI women who have contacted me over the years.
Can the cabinet secretary advise whether she has had any correspondence—other than the cross-party letter that she said she has not had a response to—on any of the issues that have been raised in the chamber about the alleged informing of those women about the changes?
Health, 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
You also called for MAT standards to
“cover all drugs causing harm”,
not just opiates. Can you tell us more about the evidence that you heard on why that is needed? What difference would that make to the treatment offer?
Health, 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. You have called for all public and third sector services to be
“enabled and supported to share information including the justice system.”
I am mindful that you have said that not everyone has such information to share, so you might want to address that point. Why did you make that recommendation? What needs to be done to support that?
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 20 February 2025
Clare Haughey
Alongside Blantyre, Cambuslang and Halfway community councils, I campaigned successfully against a proposed incinerator in Hamilton. I know that many local people welcomed the Scottish Government’s announcement of a moratorium on new incinerator sites. Can the minister update Parliament on the actions that the Government is taking to limit and reduce the amount of waste sent to existing incinerators?
Meeting of the Parliament
Community Wealth Building
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Clare Haughey
The Scottish Government has made strides in promoting and increasing fair work employment across Scotland, and it is vital that we keep up momentum and ensure that those who are seeking fulfilling and fair work in Scottish communities can find it. Will the minister elaborate on how the community wealth building approach can feed into the development of fair and resilient local labour markets?
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Clare Haughey
I know that members will have welcomed the recent announcement from the Scottish Government that, as part of the budget, a £2 bus fare cap pilot will be introduced in one regional transport area. At the moment, more than 2.3 million people—everyone under the age of 22 or over 65, and disabled people and carers—benefit from free bus travel, and the £2 cap could build on that good work.
As the scheme is set to be introduced from January 2026, will the minister outline the criteria on how the pilot will be measured? I take this opportunity to encourage the minister to consider introducing the pilot across South Lanarkshire and Glasgow, to benefit my Rutherglen constituents.
Meeting of the Parliament
Portfolio Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Clare Haughey
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase bus patronage in South Lanarkshire. (S6O-04306)
Meeting of the Parliament
General Question Time
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Clare Haughey
Change in social care is needed, and we must all work to secure improvement. I understand from the minister’s statement that was delivered earlier this month that a new non-statutory advisory board will be established to drive improvement in the sector. Will the minister advise when that board is expected to meet and how quickly it will be able to deliver vital reform?
