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.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
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.
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.
There are two types of keyword search:
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.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
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:
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.
Displaying 1354 contributions
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 11 May 2022
Karen Adam
Yes, I think that those words are strong enough. Is Ms Hamilton proposing something else?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 11 May 2022
Karen Adam
I will press amendment 59.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 11 May 2022
Karen Adam
Amendment 59 proposes that Scottish ministers should be required to consult
“Before making regulations under section 4, 7(2)(c) or 10”.
That means that ministers would need to consult before making regulations to specify functions in the exercise of which they are to have regard to the national good food nation plan, before making regulations to specify a public authority as a relevant authority and before making regulations to specify functions in the exercise of which the relevant authorities are to have regard to their good food nation plan. As is the case with amendments 60 and 68, in the name of Alasdair Allan, that would require the use of the affirmative procedure for several regulation-making powers that are currently subject to the negative procedure.
The amendments seek to address the recommendation in the committee’s stage 1 report that there should be greater levels of scrutiny of and consultation on the secondary legislation that will result from the bill.
Amendments 61 to 63 and 65 to 67, in the name of Beatrice Wishart, present alternative routes to achieving that extra level of scrutiny. However, my view is that those go beyond what the committee suggests in its report would be proportionate or necessary.
I move amendment 59.
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Meeting date: 11 May 2022
Karen Adam
The Conservative United Kingdom Government’s own analysis shows that prisoners who receive custodial sentences of less than 12 months without supervision on release are associated with higher levels of reoffending than prisoners who receive sentences that are to be served in the community. Instead of trying to appear tough on crime, we need policy that actually works. With that in mind, does the cabinet secretary agree that community sentences and an evidence-based approach to justice will better serve victims of crime, by working to reduce offending?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Karen Adam
Cabinet secretary, will you unpack the nature of the projects in the roll-out of the £30 million islands programme and touch on the partnership work that is under way? Specifically, how will the Scottish Futures Trust support the Scottish Government in the delivery of the programme?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Karen Adam
We have just heard about how the islands are all individual and they all have their own unique positives and challenges. We are seeing a lot of labour shortages because of Brexit. With island communities being so dependent on tourism, fisheries and agriculture, how have those shortages impacted on the islands’ sectors? Does that have anything to do with the impact upon population decline?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Karen Adam
We were also discussing housing. How does Brexit impact housing? For example, has the cost of materials and sourcing them affected house building?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Karen Adam
Will the annual report provide a guide for future fiscal decisions?
Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Karen Adam
As previous speakers have stated, the pandemic restrictions certainly highlighted the desire for human beings to connect, not just with each other but with our nature and surroundings. A path that we just used to take to get from A to B became much more than a route; it became a space for contemplation. For once, we did not just put one foot in front of the other; we looked up and around. We breathed in the air and noticed seasonal changes in a more pronounced way than before. We saw signs of wildlife and appreciated what we had perhaps taken for granted, all because we were forced to slow down and confine ourselves, and to see what we had around us—a connection to place.
Many people in the professional field of mental health speak about the disconnect that occurs during poor mental health moments. The connection not just to people but to place can have enormous benefits in reconnecting and grounding us. Many of us might be familiar with the technique to calm down during anxiety attacks: the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 method. That involves five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste. That is a fantastic way for anyone to connect while out walking.
There is one thing that we can certainly taste when walking by the coastline: the salty sea air. For those of us who live around the coast, such as in my constituency of Banffshire and Buchan Coast, our outdoor space became more important than ever over the past two years. This enhanced relationship is set to continue, motivated by those triggers, with a real connection.
I will share a practical illustration of how walking coastal trails—the paths that line our beautiful coastlines—can be a hook for motivating and empowering local communities. In my constituency, one such project that has been developed is the coast Aberdeenshire initiative, which builds on the concept of coastal paths. It is indeed about walking, but it is so much more than that. Running from Logie Head and Cullen to Peterhead, and stretching about 1 mile inland along the north-east coast, coast Aberdeenshire provides support through a dedicated council team to empower local communities, involving joined-up working with council services and specialisms. Council staff have a dedicated officer group, which facilitates connections, with support for organisations and advice and help with funding applications where appropriate.
All of that encourages community groups to identify a route or a related project, supporting local commitments, and to take ownership in the long term, developing, repairing, maintaining and promoting. Like any aspect of walking, that is ultimately about reconnecting, exploring and understanding. It is also about a local community looking after its history and coastal environment, thus emboldening a sense of community and connectivity. Walking can play a key role in the future survival of our towns and villages, our businesses and our farms and estates, and it can take in wild land and shoreline.
The potential for tourism on our coastline is vast, with visitors coming from near and far. Not only do we get to show off our stunning landscape and shoreline, we have the economic benefits that tourism brings.
As well as the very local connection to place, there was a huge increase, with international travel restrictions, in what many people call a staycation. During my childhood, my granddad called it the “costa del backie”. That was his running joke every summer. With ageing wisdom, he saw what he already had around him. I want to take that wisdom and apply it in a broader sense to my constituency. Oor backies can extend miles beyond our fences.
To finish, I will read a quote made famous by Jack Kerouac. He stated:
“There was nowhere to go but everywhere”.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 27 April 2022
Karen Adam
Could I go to Scott Walker, please? What are the implications for farmers who are looking for seasonal workers, and for Ukrainian workers who are here already?
10:45