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 1510 contributions
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Karen Adam
Many rural communities are facing complex and long-term population challenges. Schools need pupils in order to be viable, and school rolls rely on communities retaining or attracting families into their area. Many rural communities are dealing with a legacy of out-migration and depopulation, much of which predates the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. Will the First Minister set out what benefits the Scottish Government’s rural visa pilot proposals could offer to schools in our rural communities?
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Karen Adam
Thank you. I agree with those comments—four hours is a good start, but we certainly need to go further, with a more flexible approach. As the member said, the more childcare we can provide for families as a whole, including for men, the lesser the burden of childcare on women will be.
The report states:
“The retention of hybrid and remote systems was seen as increasing flexibility and access, including for those with caring responsibilities.”
In the past few months alone, our hybrid system has allowed me to carry out my duties in the Parliament when I have been unable to be in Edinburgh. However, we must be mindful that whether to allow remote or hybrid participation is often at the discretion of individual parties.
I am proud that my party is invested in supporting more women into politics at every level of government. I am proud that, under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership, we introduced the first gender-balanced cabinet in the United Kingdom and that, under Humza Yousaf’s premiership, we now see more women in Government than ever before.
We must celebrate that, but we can and must do more, in Government and as a party and a Parliament, particularly on the unprecedented levels of abuse that are faced online and in the media by women in elected politics.
How can I, in good conscience, encourage women to step into any political sphere in the knowledge that doing so will lead to abuse on a daily basis? Many women to whom I have spoken have told me that they have no desire to put themselves in the crosshairs of keyboard warriors, and that breaks my heart.
It was an honour to be a member of the gender-sensitive audit board. I thank the Presiding Officer, Alison Johnstone, and fellow members who sat on the board, namely Maggie Chapman, Monica Lennon, Jeremy Balfour and Alex Cole-Hamilton; the experts who have helped to shape this important report, including Professor Sarah Childs, Dr Meryl Kenny and Professor Fiona Mackay from the universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde; and Susan Duffy and Tracey White from the Scottish Parliament, Catherine Murphy of Engender, and Eilidh Dickson.
As is the case with the pursuit of equality, change is never instant, and efforts to enact change must be continuous. We need political commitment over the long term, not only so that the quick wins and short-term goals are reached, but so that substantial institutional change is reached. Equally, our introspection must not stop here. Assessing a Parliament for its gender sensitivity is not a one-off event. Progress needs to be monitored, data needs to be collected and analysed on an on-going basis, and further changes need to be made as inequalities are identified. I am encouraged by the enthusiasm and commitment of the Parliament’s staff. I fervently believe we will make change for the better, and I look forward to working with all to enact the recommendations of the report.
This year, we celebrate the centenary of the first woman from Scotland being elected to the UK Parliament; I note that my colleague John Swinney has celebrated the remarkable Katharine Stewart-Murray in a motion this week. We have come a long way over the past 100 years, but we still have a long way to go.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Karen Adam
Fantastic—thank you, Presiding Officer.
It is a privilege to open this debate and to have the opportunity to discuss our collective efforts to construct a gender-sensitive Parliament. The concept of a gender-sensitive Parliament is recognised by legislatures around the world and is a response to what my colleagues around the chamber will have lived experience of day in, day out. Sadly, women’s representation in Parliament is not reflective of our representation in society, and even here, where the decisions about Scotland are made, women are denied real power.
The Parliament’s gender-sensitive audit, which was launched by the Presiding Officer in 2022, looked at our rules, practices and culture to examine how women are—or are not—included and represented here. The new report, “A Parliament for All: Report of the Parliament’s Gender Sensitive Audit”, which I encourage every member to read, makes a number of recommendations to address the issues that were highlighted by the audit.
Of course, the barriers to entry for women to this Parliament and politics in general are many, and I want to spend a few moments talking about the obstacles that many of my colleagues across the parties might have faced.
In the 2021 election, I stood on an all-women candidate list in Banffshire and Buchan Coast. On many occasions in that election, I was challenged by a small but vocal minority not on my ability, my values or what I could bring to the debate, but on the basis that I stood on an all-women shortlist. For that small yet vocal minority, it did not matter what experience I could bring to bear when discussing the many issues that are faced by people across Banffshire and Buchan Coast.
For them, it did not matter that I was working class, that I was brought up in an LGBT home, that I had experience of translating for my deaf father or caring for my children with additional support needs, or that I had succeeded in many voluntary positions while juggling a degree and being a councillor and single parent to six children. For them, it did not matter that I had the opportunity of bringing those experiences to Parliament and being a voice for so many others like me, who rarely see themselves reflected in Parliaments like this one. All that mattered was that I was on an all-women shortlist, which meant that I had somehow skipped the queue. While we discuss how we support women in Parliament, I hope that I have given every party leader pause for thought on the uphill struggles, misogyny, abuse and harassment that women face on their journeys into this place.
The audit, which was carried out by Dr Fiona McKay, found that there had been fluctuations over time in the number of women in leadership and decision-making roles in the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body, the Parliamentary Bureau and committee convenerships, for example. That suggests that equal representation of women and men is not embedded within Parliament, nor is it guaranteed going forward. We can and must do better.
The audit also found that the number of women and men on committees does not always reflect the gender balance in Parliament. Men tend to be overrepresented in a number of mandatory committees, such as those dealing with finance, audit, standards and procedures and delegated powers. The one mandatory committee where women tend to be overrepresented is the committee that is responsible for equalities, which is the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, on which I sit.
On the level of participation in Parliament, the audit found that women tended to make fewer contributions during First Minister’s questions and were less likely to intervene in debates. It also found that men were more likely to have their interventions accepted by men and women.
To the surprise of no women in the chamber today, the audit found that, although there appears to be a positive shift in attitudes towards women in politics, women members of the Scottish Parliament still encounter sexism. I will not go into full detail here, but I have lost count of the number of times that I have been told what I should or should not say, what I should or should not do and where I should or should not sit. I have lost count of the number of times that I have been spoken over or expected to explain myself, and we know full well that that is seldom the case for our male colleagues. I call on my male colleagues to challenge that behaviour wherever they see it. Only in that way can we change the culture for good.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2023
Karen Adam
What are your views on the proposed licensing system for muirburn? Do you feel that it meets the needs of the review’s recommendations?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2023
Karen Adam
Good morning, panellists. Following on from Ariane Burgess’s question, does the bill support the full potential of what grouse moors could do to support biodiversity and climate change?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2023
Karen Adam
That is helpful. I do not want to put words in your mouth, but could we see the bill as more of a vehicle to get the full picture that we do not currently have?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2023
Karen Adam
To go back to adequate safeguarding, Ross Ewing has spoken about vexatious complaints and interference. What would you see as being adequate safeguards?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2023
Karen Adam
Education is needed.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2023
Karen Adam
My question is for Libby Anderson and Ian Andrew. What are your views on the proposals for a transition period?