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 1347 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Food Standards Scotland
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I believe that meal replacement shakes are part of a diet culture. A huge proportion of people—I suspect, most people—have been on diets, on and off, for their whole lives. Do consumers feel that things such as meal replacement shakes are healthy alternatives to eating well? If you do think that, what have you done about it?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Food Standards Scotland
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
On the perception of healthy foods versus what is actually healthy, a lot of people think that cereal bars are a very healthy alternative to having breakfast, whereas they are in fact full of sugar, salt and other things. A lot of foods are perceived to be healthy but are patently not. What research have you done on that and on the public’s perception of what is healthy?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I have a final question, Dr Cass, if I may. An important area is regret and detransitioning. What does your research show about the number of children who experience regret? Indeed, has it been able to show that? You have said that puberty blockers are irreversible, so what do we then do with children who face that issue?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
Dr Cass, I know that adult services were outside the scope of your review, but you mentioned them in your report. At paragraph 19.31, you stated:
“There was an expectation that patients would be started on masculinising/feminising hormones by their second appointment, which was a cause of concern given the complexity of presentations.”
Did your research show anything similar for children’s services?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Food Standards Scotland
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I declare an interest, in that I am a practising NHS GP. I am a bit disappointed to hear that the issue of a reduction in red meat is due to the climate report, not simply to a discussion about healthy eating. I was glad that Dr Purdon eventually spoke about the risk of colorectal cancer. Ultimately, we need to eat a wide and varied diet, with a rainbow plate; one portion of red meat a week; far more fish; and far more vegetables.
I am also glad that Dr Purdon mentioned the food environment, because that is what I want to speak about. I have heard that all branches of Greggs are approximately 200m from a school. Is that accurate?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
Gillick competence can mean from the age of 13 onwards, which is why I asked about parents, too. Can we use Gillick competence in this treatment pathway, and, if we can, should the parents be aware?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Food Standards Scotland
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
We had a long discussion about that earlier.
I know that time is against us, but I have a final question. I have been on your website and I looked at your X account. You have 6,000 followers, or maybe fewer than that, so that is certainly something that can be improved. I did not see anything about portions on your website or X account. The size of our plates has gone from a side plate to what used to be a serving plate. Portion control is possibly one of the most important ways to have a healthy, balanced diet that allows calorie control and allows us to think about what we are doing. Using hands is a great way of doing that. Do you have any thoughts on that and how to promote it?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Food Standards Scotland
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
Thank you.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I declare an interest as a practising NHS general practitioner.
Thank you for joining us, Dr Cass. I have grave concerns about the use of puberty blockers for children, given the paucity of evidence and given that the early intervention study did not demonstrate benefit. I feel that ideology and dogma have no place in medical treatment. Given that you have stated that young people’s gender identity is “fluid” and that there is “no hierarchy”, do you feel that there is an age where it becomes more fixed?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
Certainly, the things that I believed when I was a child are very different from the things that I believe now, as are the things that I feel are or are not important.
In your report, recommendation 8 states that we should be looking to prescribe medication at 18, and recommendation 6 states that we need a trial. If medication were to be given below the age of 18, would it be appropriate for that to happen without parents’ knowledge, or do you feel that 18 is the right point? Also, given your previous statement, why did recommendation 8 state 18 as the age?
