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 1251 contributions
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I just reiterate that it is important that we include all products including vaping.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I agree. I said earlier that I agree that vaping has an important potential role to play in the reduction of cigarette smoking. I do not know of many things that could be worse than cigarette smoking when it comes to harm, quite frankly.
We know that vaping will cause less harm, but the point that I am trying to raise is that vaping produces a big cloud of smoke. You might not be one of the people who does that in certain areas but, if I am walking up to a hospital, through hospital doors or in the grounds, I do not want to be faced with that big plume of smoke. Even though we do not have a lot of evidence about its effects, I would not like to be walking through that. If everyone is vaping outside the entrances, that is absolutely not what I would like to see.
I think that we could have a balance. We heard from the minister that we cannot put vaping in, because that needs primary legislation—that is absolutely fair enough—but we should be looking for a way of ensuring that there is clarity that people should not smoke on hospital grounds and that they do not vape there, either, because I just do not want to be walking through a cloud of smoke.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
Before I get into my questions on systemic inequality, I wonder whether the minister would join me in asking anyone who is available for any screening programme to attend it.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
As a doctor, I am obviously supportive of the idea of not smoking around the entrances to hospitals. I have seen people smoking outside the children’s hospital in Glasgow, with the smoke going up to the children inside.
I have a few questions. NHS Forth Valley has been trying to enforce no-smoking areas. It has introduced big cross hatches, and somebody goes around telling people not to smoke. That person gets an awful lot of abuse. I understand that we will allow environmental health officers to issue fixed-penalty notices, but how do we prevent such abuse?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
Good morning, minister. What is the gender pay gap in the Scottish NHS?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2022
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
Dr Cawston, you said earlier that there is a standard amount of money going into general practice. Was I mistaken in thinking that, initially, GPs who worked in areas of high deprivation actually got more funding but that, following the introduction of the new GP contract, although there is an element of the funding allocation that concerns deprivation, more money is going to the care of those who are elderly and living with complex needs, which has reduced the money that is going into areas of deprivation?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2022
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
Professor Marmot, I remember reading about everything that you were doing when I was at medical school, so it is great to be able to see you and speak to you.
I have a question for Professor Meier. I believe that you founded the Sheffield alcohol research group. Through all the work that you have done and what we have seen, we know that alcohol most impacts people who are more deprived. Two reports have come out on alcohol and minimum unit pricing in Scotland, including one that came out today. Both reports present evidence that minimum unit pricing is not working and that the most vulnerable people, especially those who drink spirits, are cutting back on buying food. What is your response to that? How can we ensure that the impact of alcohol is not felt so greatly in the areas of most deprivation?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2022
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
With respect, alcohol consumption fell among those who were not deprived, but we saw alcohol consumption rise among people who have an alcohol problem and among the most vulnerable people. A report by Public Health Scotland found no clear evidence of a reduction in alcohol consumption among people drinking at harmful levels following the implementation of minimum unit pricing. However, you are absolutely right to say that there has been a collapse of recovery services, which is key. We have also found that those who are drinking have just switched what they drink, as I said in my first question.
The United Kingdom Government has increased tax on the basis of the alcohol level, so tax is increased on spirits and there are lower tax rates for drinks that are weaker in their alcohol content—those that are 3.5 per cent alcohol, for example—and for low and no-alcohol drinks. Should we be promoting low and no-alcohol drinks? Should we introduce a system that looks not just at pricing? In terms of health inequalities, our approach to alcohol is a huge area that does not seem to be quite working.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2022
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I want to pick up on the financial impact of going to prison. When someone gets released from prison, do the jobs that they can get pay much less? Indeed, will they struggle to get any job whatsoever?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2022
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
You mentioned that you want an IT system for prescribing. As a general practitioner, I see people who come out of prison because they need healthcare, but I do not know what diagnoses have been made in prison. You spoke in your opening statement about mental health issues. A lot of that comes to the fore in prison, where people are seen and their mental health condition is diagnosed. I do not know what that diagnosis is or what drugs they have been prescribed. Some people come to me asking for drugs that I do not ordinarily prescribe—a specialist usually prescribes them. We are in a completely unsatisfactory situation for the patient, as well as for me, because I simply do not know what to do.
We want an IT system that works and talks to other systems, and we want digital prescribing. What are your needs and asks to make the process of a prisoner coming out of prison and accessing healthcare better not only for the patient but for the healthcare professional? Invariably, that is the same thing.