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 2144 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Emma Harper
Good morning, and thank you for being here. I declare an interest in that I am still a registered nurse. My background and experience are as a general nurse.
I am interested in the Scottish mental health law review, which made some recommendations. The convener has already touched on this a wee bit. Given that the Mental Welfare Commission does not have enforcement powers, how does it ensure that the recommendations that it makes following its visits lead to meaningful service improvements?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Emma Harper
Just before Julie Paterson comes in, I note that there are issues with young people transitioning from in-patient care to community care. Eating disorders affect boys and girls—everybody thinks that they affect only girls, but they do not. I am interested in the community aspects of care.
I am sorry for interrupting you.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Emma Harper
A seven-year period is covered in the Skye house documentary. You have talked about unannounced visits and other visits. How many visits are we talking about, especially if you go back to investigate three months later? Do the visits involve speaking to the staff and the teams on the ground in each of the three ward areas? I am curious as to why the culture—which, as the documentary showed, evolved into something quite disturbing—was not picked up on sooner.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Pandemic Preparedness
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Emma Harper
I know that there are complexities around planning, whether that is for flu or other potential disease pathogens. We have talked about various reports, such as the module 1 report, the respiratory action plan and the one that recommended the Scottish pandemic sciences partnership. Work is under way, but are you confident that that is a process of simplification?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Pandemic Preparedness
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Emma Harper
I do not want to cause shock or alarm to anybody, but how do the scientists who work with humans in tracing the genomics of pathogens and viruses work with our veterinarians, for instance? We have recently had issues with Schmallenberg virus and bluetongue, and there has been foot and mouth in Germany, so I am thinking about the zoonotic aspects of avian influenza, which Sir Gregor has mentioned. How do we work with other scientists to track and trace the potential pathogens from ticks, fleas and other wee beasties?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Pandemic Preparedness
Meeting date: 3 June 2025
Emma Harper
We are a few years down the line from the Covid pandemic, and I am sure that we all have personal experiences and remember things about it, including what could have happened or what could have been done. During the pandemic, as a registered nurse, I was giving vaccines as well as being an MSP. I am therefore interested to know the detail of any progress that has been made in implementing the United Kingdom Covid-19 inquiry’s module 1 recommendations that the emergency preparedness and resilience structures should be simplified. I see that Sir Gregor is nodding.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Galloway and Ayrshire National Park Proposal
Meeting date: 29 May 2025
Emma Harper
It is clear that there is no current consensus from the local communities in Galloway and Ayrshire about the way forward. That is exactly why the Scottish Government’s consultation was so important—because it established what the views are.
The cabinet secretary has intimated this already, but I ask her to say more about how the communities can be supported to engage with one another on what is next. Will she also say more about plans for the future with regard to what is in the best interests of Galloway and Ayrshire?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
First Minister’s Question Time
Meeting date: 29 May 2025
Emma Harper
Save the Children has warned that delay in the UK Government’s publishing its child poverty strategy means that
“20,000 more children will be dragged into poverty.”
Does the First Minister share my concern that, yet again, Westminster’s inaction is getting in the way of the Scottish Government’s work to eradicate child poverty in South Scotland and across the rest of our country?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 28 May 2025
Emma Harper
Yes.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]
Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 28 May 2025
Emma Harper
I have a quick supplementary for Brendan Callaghan. When he previously appeared before the committee, I raised the issue that ground-nesting birds are among the species that are declining across Europe. I am interested in how the bill will interact with or support regional land use partnerships and their development. Does it support the ability to focus on wider ecosystems? We know that trees and woodland are a great place for predators, which can affect ground nests and the bird population. I am interested in how the bill interacts and intersects with and supports regional land use partnerships when we are looking at whole ecosystem habitats.
