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 1386 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Siobhian Brown
It is hypothetical, but it is worth considering as we move forward, when we have a general election coming. Jim Wilson may want to give some background about the court case.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Siobhian Brown
I will pass that question to Jim Wilson, because he will deal with the lawyers and put the SSIs in place.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Siobhian Brown
It has been. We must reiterate that many XL bully owners are responsible; very few are not. The issue of breeding has come up in my conversations with stakeholders and animal welfare organisations. My remit covers dangerous dogs. I am keen to work with Jim Fairlie in the context of animal welfare, which has been a topical subject in the past couple of months and is one that we should examine.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 February 2024
Siobhian Brown
I will just reiterate that this is not an ideal situation and that the decision has not been taken lightly. Moving forward, I hope that we are never in this position again and, for that to happen, there must be reform in legislation. Under my remit on dangerous dogs, I am willing to work with Mr Fairlie, the new minister with responsibility for animal welfare, on how we can make the necessary reform.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
I think that we got that balance right. One of the main aspects of the bill is to simplify the process for consumers. Leanna or Jamie, with their deeper understanding of what happened with the bill before I took over, can come in on the history.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
The Legal Services Board is accountable to Parliament through the Lord Chancellor, who is a UK minister with a number of statutory roles in relation to the board and regulation of legal services. Our bill contains provisions to introduce a role for the Scottish ministers in reviewing and protecting regulation of legal services but, as the committee is aware, we will lodge amendments to transfer the functions to the Lord President and remove responsibility from the Scottish ministers.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
When the bill was introduced back in April—with the call for views following in August—I was conscious that it was viewed as being all about the Scottish ministers making a power grab. Officials have therefore been looking at lodging amendments so that the bill does not focus so much on the powers of the Scottish ministers. There could instead be more of a focus on provisions on which there is general agreement among stakeholders and the legal profession.
I return to the Scottish Government’s response to the consultation analysis published in December 2022. We set out that
“there should be a process for intervention by Scottish Ministers in the light of concerns being raised on how and whether regulators are delivering their regulatory objectives and the operation of regulation in relation to public interest.”
When the consultation came out last year, the legal stakeholders were very positive because I think that they were focused on the possibility that an independent regulator would be proposed and it was not. At that stage, in 2022, there was no resistance to the Scottish ministers’ role; that came only after the bill was introduced in April 2023.
The proposed amendments are complex and we need to engage and get agreement with the Lord President, the Law Society of Scotland and all stakeholders. Until we have that agreement, we will not be in a position to get the lawyers to draft the stage 2 amendments. That work is on-going among officials, stakeholders and the Lord President’s office.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
One of the main aims is to simplify the complaints process for the general public. The SLCC will remain the single gateway for all complaints against legal practitioners, although there will be a limited number of exceptions—for example, where a complaint is identified by a regulator.
In the consultation that we did, most respondents—87 per cent—agreed that the single gateway for all legal complaints should be retained. It was argued that a single gateway for all legal complaints is sufficient to bring clarity and transparency to the process for the profession and consumers and that it makes it simpler for consumers to access legal advice.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
Thank you for that question. In transferring functions to the Lord President, we will be expanding the current oversight role in legal services regulation. That does not create a new function for the Lord President but expands a role that already exists and operates without any concern about politicisation.
Although the senators indicated to the committee that they cannot agree to any transfer before they have seen the details, it may be helpful to remind members of the senators’ written response, which showed that the principle of transferring the review powers to the Lord President was acceptable and that that should be done.
In respect of the consumer voice, the bill expands the remit of the consumer panel, giving it a role in undertaking research to provide quality, evidence-based advice in the sector, in order to ensure that decisions are shaped to meet the needs of the different consumers of legal services, including individuals, businesses and the third sector. The consumer voice is essential in legal services regulation and we are reflecting on the comments of stakeholders that represent the consumer interest in relation to how we might strengthen the bill in that regard.
10:15Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 December 2023
Siobhian Brown
Sure. It might be easiest if I point the committee to the evidence that has been heard across the board welcoming the changes to make the complaints system easier. Neil Stevenson, the SLCC’s chief executive, said that the bill takes
“tremendous steps forward that will reduce complexity and give”
the commission
“extra discretion to deal with particular situations, which should benefit consumers and practitioners.”
Rosemary Agnew, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, said that the bill’s approach in relation to quality assurance and continuous improvement is
“not just best practice—it enables the development of best practice.”—[Official Report, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, 14 November 2023; c 8, 23.]
Rachel Woods of the Law Society of Scotland said:
“We welcome the changes that it brings in with regard to making the system faster and more streamlined, and less complex”
for the consumer. She welcomed
“the ability for the Law Society to raise and begin investigating a complaint directly”,
and she welcomed the reintroduction of hybrid complaints, which she said will, for the consumer,
“speed things up and make things less expensive”.—[Official Report, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, 21 November 2023; c 22-23.]
