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 876 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Brian Whittle
I am listening intently to what you are saying, and it brings me back to earlier amendments that I was trying to get the committee to agree to, but which were not agreed to, on advance care directives. Such directives would address the exact point that you are making about the patient’s request, should something go wrong. I feel the same as you that there is this idea that nothing will ever go wrong. Consequently, I believe that we need advance care directives. Do you agree with that, and with my suggestion that amendments be lodged at stage 3 to include them in the bill?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Brian Whittle
Again, I welcome the way in which Liam McArthur has engaged with members from across the chamber, but I disagree with him on one point. This bill is not like any other bill that we have ever had before us—it is very different from anything that we have been asked to consider previously.
My concern is that, if we do not manage to deliver some of the changes that we want and some of the safeguards that we have tried to put forward—be it that they must be reworded—it becomes increasingly difficult for people such as me, who have not made a decision one way or the other, to support that principle. I urge Mr McArthur and the committee to consider what has been said.
I press amendment 173.
Amendment 173 agreed to.
Amendment 174 moved—[Brian Whittle].
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Brian Whittle
I will press amendment 173, and, in doing so, I have to say that I am feeling increasing disquiet at the way in which a lot of these amendments are being dealt with, both by Liam McArthur and by the committee. These are amendments that I have lodged on behalf of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and which Jackie Baillie has lodged at the request of the RCN, and I remind members that those are the actual people who will be at the delivery end of this bill, should it pass. I worry about the pushback against both of those groups, because, in my view, they are the experts and their views have to be taken into consideration.
Medicine is not an exact science and, as we have heard, there will be adverse reactions to medication, however rare those reactions might be. I have tried, through advance care directives, to put some protection in place with regard to a medical professional’s liability in the case that something goes wrong. Colleagues across the table here—Douglas Ross, Bob Doris, Sue Webber and Paul Sweeney—have all raised the same issues, and quite frankly, I do not think that the bill, as drafted, takes into consideration or addresses properly what happens on the rare occasions when something goes wrong.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Brian Whittle
My concern, which you might be able to address, is that your proposed approach skews matters. If, for example, there was a cancer diagnosis, it would not be recorded as such. That approach could skew a lot of health sector data.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Brian Whittle
I always have to mention it.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Brian Whittle
I have to say that I am incredibly uncomfortable with the direction of travel of this conversation. Having listened to the interventions and contributions from colleagues, I can see no circumstances in which a GP would be able to raise the subject of assisted dying in the first instance—
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Brian Whittle
If it does not interfere with the legislative process, I do not see any reason at all why we would not write.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Brian Whittle
I recognise Mr McArthur’s on-going willingness to work with members and collaborate on the bill, but it seems that there is a presumption that none of the other members in the room have previously spoken to each other about their amendments.
12:15In fact, many more amendments, including some duplicates, would have been lodged had we not spoken to each other. Members have, to date, lodged many amendments to address safeguarding issues and those amendments have been rejected, which concerns me. I have put it on the record that I voted for the principles of the bill at stage 1; I had not decided at that time which side of the argument I would fall on, come stage 3, but I said that there would have to be significant changes to the bill in respect of safeguarding if I was ever to support it at stage 3.
On the specific requests from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the RCN to me, Jackie Baillie and Daniel Johnson on lodging amendments, I note that the RCN is concerned because its members have to deliver on the bill, and to push back against that raises a concern for me.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 18 November 2025
Brian Whittle
Of course.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 11 November 2025
Brian Whittle
I have a point of clarification. Is it not already in law that a medical practitioner may refer a patient to authorities that might be able to help with a vulnerability?
