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 2279 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 19 March 2024
Emma Harper
Good morning to my colleague on the other side of the table. You have clarified the issue of 200m zones being established in Scotland, when 150m was part of the original consultation. From my asking the minister about it, I think that the 200m decision was related to the Queen Elizabeth university hospital. Is that correct?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 19 March 2024
Emma Harper
In Scotland, 200m would be established as the safe zone—is that right?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 19 March 2024
Emma Harper
Also related to my previous question to the minister, I would like to ask you about signage in those areas. My understanding is that some people think that that would just draw more attention to a site that provides healthcare services. What are your thoughts on signage?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 19 March 2024
Emma Harper
It has come up previously that there have been protests for eight years now at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital, and that that specific issue was one of the reasons why 150m was not considered to be adequate and 200m was agreed. At other hospitals, the zone might not need to be 200m, but will depend on the hospital’s periphery.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 19 March 2024
Emma Harper
I am thinking about the ability to extend or reduce a zone or to add a new site. I used the example of a new hospital—a replacement service in another area. One concern was about the Scottish ministers making that decision to extend or reduce the area without going through further parliamentary scrutiny. Sandesh Gulhane spoke about further scrutiny through statutory instruments or making sure that wider consultation was under way. Might we need to consider that as we move forward—or would it potentially incur delays in establishing new, enhanced or reduced zones?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 19 March 2024
Emma Harper
Good morning. I am interested in the decision to set the safe access zone at 200m, as is proposed in the bill. How did you come to make that choice, given that legislation elsewhere sets out other sizes—for example, 50m or 150m? What evidence led to the proposal to establish 200m zones in Scotland?
Meeting of the Parliament
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
Meeting date: 19 March 2024
Emma Harper
I apologise for not picking up the essence of Mr Carson’s first intervention, but Rachael Hamilton helped to clarify it, as did the minister. My understanding is that merlin breed on grouse moors. Sometimes, when muirburn is carried out, that can affect those birds and their ability to survive. I will not rehearse what I said, but I am glad to hear that the minister agrees with my reasons for lodging those amendments.
Amendment 86 moved—[Emma Harper]—and agreed to.
Amendment 87 moved—[Rachael Hamilton].
Meeting of the Parliament
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
Meeting date: 19 March 2024
Emma Harper
It is absolutely necessary that we monitor what is happening with our raptor species in rural areas. I know that members from all parties agree that raptor persecution is a despicable act that is carried out by very few people.
The bill seeks to support the fact that most wildlife management is conducted lawfully and contributes so much to the rural economy. I am pleased that the minister supports my amendment, and I encourage other colleagues to do so.
I press amendment 76.
Meeting of the Parliament
Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
Meeting date: 19 March 2024
Emma Harper
Thank you, Presiding Officer—I know that time is getting on, so I willnae be speaking too long.
The need for a muirburn season is well understood and was set out in the Hill Farming Act 1946. It ensures that muirburn is carried out only when the risk of economic, social and environment damage is at a minimum. For example, the muirburn season ends in spring in order to ensure that protected ground-nesting birds are not disturbed during their breeding season.
There are different permitted reasons for carrying out muirburn—
Meeting of the Parliament
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 19 March 2024
Emma Harper
My question is in a similar vein to Colin Smyth’s.
The NHS board is working with the National Crime Agency, the UK National Cyber Security Centre, the Scottish Government and the Information Commissioner to mitigate and investigate the recent cyberattack. It was clear at yesterday’s NHS briefing that the board was not able to provide full information, as advised by those professional agencies, but one thing that is clear is that cyberattacks will become more commonplace. Will the cabinet secretary provide further information on how the lessons that are learned from the NHS D and G event, including the business continuity plan, will be shared with other public bodies in Scotland to ensure that they are prepared to prevent, as far as possible, a similar attack in the future?
