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 2004 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Urgent Question
Meeting date: 1 June 2021
Emma Harper
I want to protect everybody from sexual violence. In Scots law, there is no so-called rough sex defence. The doctrine of volenti—the square go defence—was excluded by the celebrated case of Smart v HMA 1975, meaning that, in Scotland, claiming that a victim consented to an act that resulted in their injury or death is not a defence to charges of assault to injury, culpable homicide or murder. Does the cabinet secretary agree that, although there is more to be done to protect people from sexual violence, Scots law does not allow for the so-called rough sex defence?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
National Health Service Recovery Plan
Meeting date: 1 June 2021
Emma Harper
I welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate on health recovery and I welcome the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, as well as the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, Kevin Stewart, to their roles.
The past 15 months have been unprecedented for us all. The health and wellbeing, social and financial challenges that have been experienced have been extremely difficult for many people, including our healthcare workforce. NHS Scotland has made rapid changes during the Covid pandemic and now we have an opportunity to accelerate reform. I thank everyone for their commitment and their work in the multidisciplinary team approaches so far.
I will focus on four key points that have particular relevance to health service reform in Dumfries and Galloway, which is in the south-west and part of the South Scotland region. They are cancer treatment pathways; travel-cost reimbursement; the Scottish National Party’s manifesto commitment to an agency for remote and rural medicine; and the respiratory care action plan.
I have raised NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s cancer treatment pathways on many occasions. D and G is part of the south-east cancer network and the treatment pathways mean that patients in Wigtownshire and the rest of D and G who require radiotherapy, for example, are referred to Edinburgh, which is a 260-mile round trip, instead of Glasgow, which is a 150-mile round trip. Nowhere in D and G is in the south-east of Scotland.
The previous cabinet secretary said that patients should be offered a choice of place for treatment. Will the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care give assurances later today or in correspondence that patients will be informed about their choice of place for treatment, including treatment closer to home?
People in the NHS Dumfries and Galloway area are reimbursed for travel costs only under a means-tested model, whereas people in the Highlands and Islands and in Ayrshire and Arran are eligible for full reimbursement for journeys of more than 30 miles and even for overnight supported accommodation. When I previously raised travel cost reimbursement and the treatment pathway place, the former health secretary agreed that the Government would carry out a review. Has that review been completed? As part of any health service reform, what changes will be made to treatment pathways and reimbursement arrangements? My constituents in the west of Dumfries and Galloway would be happy to hear about positive steps to change current processes.
It is good news that the SNP has made a commitment to creating a centre of excellence for rural and remote medicine and social care. The aim is to provide expertise and advice on the delivery of care in rural, island and remote settings across Scotland. I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary provided further detail about how the rural centre of excellence will be progressed. I have no doubt that a centre for rural medicine and the brand-new fast-track cancer diagnostic centre that is up and running in Dumfries will help many people in remote areas of Dumfries and Galloway with their healthcare issues.
More good news is the Government’s commitment to implement the respiratory care action plan. In 2016, I was the convener of the cross-party group on lung health and not long out of my prior job as a nurse, and I called for a plan to tackle issues that relate to smoking, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the important condition of obstructive sleep apnoea, which is the first lung health issue that will be addressed under the plan. That is hugely welcome, particularly in dealing with long Covid. I look forward to seeing how the plan will be implemented; I welcome the commitment of the Government and of Dr Tom Fardon and his team in taking forward the plan.
I welcome the motion, the debate and the health recovery steps that the Government has taken. I look forward to positive engagement with the cabinet secretary.
16:03Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Scottish Government Priorities
Meeting date: 26 May 2021
Emma Harper
The First Minister has outlined an ambitious plan to take Scotland forward, which I welcome. The UK Government has proposed and passed bills including the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill and has launched the levelling up fund and the shared prosperity fund, which shows that the UK Government can undermine Scottish Parliament powers that are set out in the Scotland acts. Given that, will the First Minister outline how UK Government bills will impact on or impede the priorities of the Scottish Government? What action can be taken to prevent an attack on our Parliament’s powers?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Oaths and Affirmations
Meeting date: 13 May 2021
Emma Harper
made a solemn affirmation and repeated it in Scots.
