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 324 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee, Health Social Care and Sport Committee, and Social Justice and Social Security Committee (Joint Meeting) [Draft]
Reducing Drug Deaths and Tackling Problem Drug Use
Meeting date: 2 October 2025
Annie Wells
Minister, we heard from a man who has lived in the Calton area for 42 years. He is a drug addict and has been trying to get off drugs for a long time. He said that the situation in the area—for example, when it comes to drug dealers—is the worst that he has ever seen, and he feels that he has been left behind. What are you doing in that area? What measures are you putting in to make a difference so that drug dealers do not come into the area? Will those efforts make a positive impact on that gentleman’s life?
Criminal Justice Committee, Health Social Care and Sport Committee, and Social Justice and Social Security Committee (Joint Meeting) [Draft]
Reducing Drug Deaths and Tackling Problem Drug Use
Meeting date: 2 October 2025
Annie Wells
I understand where you are coming from, but the gentleman I mentioned said that the situation is the worst that he has seen in the east end of Glasgow in 42 years. Having been a pupil at a school down there—less than 42 years ago—I understand where he is coming from. I also have family who live there.
My main concern is that we have gangs in Glasgow, who have been in the news a lot recently, and they are the people who are selling drugs in the streets. What can we do to make the community safe for those who are trying to abstain from drugs but find a drug dealer on the corner of the street, outside the Thistle or in the surrounding area? I would like to get a wee bit of recognition that that is happening now. What can we do about it?
Criminal Justice Committee, Health Social Care and Sport Committee, and Social Justice and Social Security Committee (Joint Meeting) [Draft]
Reducing Drug Deaths and Tackling Problem Drug Use
Meeting date: 2 October 2025
Annie Wells
Thanks very much for that answer, and I get what you are saying. However, when we were discussing the pilot for this facility, we were told that it would be a pathway for people to get into residential rehab, and we are not really seeing that—although I know that the Scottish Government has increased the number of residential rehab places fourfold in the past year.
I know Calton very well—I have family down there, and I went to school there. I appreciate that the facility gives people a place to go to get a shower and all that, but when I backed the pilot, I did so because I thought that it would mean that more people would get the opportunity to go into residential rehab. When I speak to families of people who have lost their lives—my family included—they tell me that the person just wanted help and support, their family to be looked after and to be given the support to go into residential rehab, if that was what they chose. This just seems like a lost opportunity. I will leave it there just now, but I think that we could be doing so much more there.
I have another small question, convener. Does the facility offer transport to people? Is there a transport offer to get people to the Thistle?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 18 September 2025
Annie Wells
Thank you, minister.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 18 September 2025
Annie Wells
Good morning to you, minister, and to your officials. You mentioned the dissolution period. I would like to understand what discussions you have had with parliamentary authorities about reducing that period. I know that you have said that it will probably still start on the earlier date, rather than on 9 April. What discussions have been had?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 4 September 2025
Annie Wells
Good morning. On the timing of the count, the minister wrote to the Electoral Management Board and decided that he was not going to specify a requirement for the count to be done overnight or to put that specifically in the order. Chris Highcock, can you provide an update on the returning officer’s position on the timing of the count and whether a consistent position will be adopted across the country? Will the count be done overnight or on the day after the election?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 4 September 2025
Annie Wells
It probably has.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 4 September 2025
Annie Wells
Yes. Thank you very much.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 19 June 2025
Annie Wells
People are used to going to local schools and places like that to vote. Would signing places be well enough advertised? Would they be where a local person would normally go, and would it be up to the council to highlight signing places throughout the ward? I am just thinking that when people have to vote for something, whether it be a recall petition or whatever, they automatically think that they have to go to the local primary school or wherever. I am not really talking about advertising where the signing place will be, but about how we make it coincide with where people would normally vote. If it was in Hamilton or Rutherglen, for example, and they were using places different to where people would normally vote, how would we make sure that people were aware of that under the legislation?
I know that it would be down to councils, but I am finding it a bit confusing that we are trying to do the same thing that we do when we are electing someone, but we are not electing someone—do you know what I mean? It is about the voting process and, as was said earlier, there is voter confusion about where they go and how they do it.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Scottish Parliament (Recall and Removal of Members) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 19 June 2025
Annie Wells
You mentioned postal votes. The committee is looking at the deadline for receipt of the signing papers and rules for donations and spending on campaigns. Is there provision in the bill for those things, or should there be?
