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 1654 contributions
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 9 May 2023
Maggie Chapman
May I explore that point a little more? In our evidence gathering in previous weeks, we have heard about the relationship that councils have to have with the third sector and about the support and other things—it is not just about support; it is about having things to do—that you mentioned. Is there a challenge, particularly for local authorities that are not in the central belt and do not have the same access to the broader ecology of support and activities as those in the central belt do? Is there something particular there that we need to be thinking about when we have Scotland-wide dispersal systems?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 9 May 2023
Maggie Chapman
Good morning, panel. Thank you for joining us and for what you have said so far. I am sorry that I cannot be with you in person today.
I want to explore a couple of issues about the use of hotels and how they support or do not support you in your important, necessary work. I will, if I may, come to Bronagh Andrew first. Bronagh, you mentioned in your opening remarks that one of TARA’s concerns is that hotels provide ready-made places where traffickers can go to target vulnerable people. Can you tell us more about how you have seen that sort of thing function, if you have seen that in Scotland? Given that we are likely to see more hotel use across Scotland, how do you see it changing the nature of your work?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 9 May 2023
Maggie Chapman
Thanks, Thomas.
Gayle Findlay, from your experience of working in COSLA and seeing what is happening across different local authorities, what should we be thinking about doing better or differently to ensure that we get integration between the asylum seekers who are being supported—hopefully—in hotels, and the immediate local communities and the wider local authority area? What are the key challenges or asks that you have?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Maggie Chapman
I have other questions, but I am conscious of time.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Maggie Chapman
My next question is for Savan Qadir. We talk about the importance of integration, and I agree with Pinar Aksu’s point that integration cannot happen if we essentially lock people up in hotels for months on end. In your experience, what capacity has there been to have community discussions that are not forced and controlled but take place in safe spaces where people can come together in a way that allows local residents to engage and work with those who are in hotels? Is that something that you see happening? Does it happen well in some places? Does it happen at all in others?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Maggie Chapman
I want to explore that point a little further. Mears has the Home Office contract to run the hotels. I am thinking back to one scheme that I am familiar with, which is the Syrian refugee resettlement programme that started in 2015 and involved what seemed to be an attempt at genuine partnership working between local authorities, the national health service and the third sector, certainly in some parts of Scotland. Do you think that one of the fundamental problems with the situation that we have at the moment is services being contracted out to a private company that has no interest and no need to properly engage with local authorities, the charity sector or with other support organisations? Is that one of the structural systemic issues that you were talking about?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Maggie Chapman
Good morning. I thank the witnesses for joining us. I share their fury and rage about what is happening—in relation to both the Illegal Migration Bill and the constant undermining of human beings.
I take Selina Hales’s point about the language that we use very much to heart. When we are functioning in a system that is so dehumanising and marginalising, everything that we say and do matters.
I often ask about the use of institutional accommodation, because that is what we are talking about when we talk about hotels. Pinar Aksu talked about the normalisation of not having community. That is, in essence, what we are doing. I want to explore a few issues, particularly issues around who gets access. Selina Hales spoke about charities not being let in. I know that she wants to come back in, and I am sure that she will be able to later.
First, though, I want to ask María José Pavez about her work with the Grampian Regional Equality Council. I am aware of issues at a particular hotel in Aberdeen, which I will not name. People from the local community wanted to go in—indeed, they were going in—to provide help and support, to befriend the asylum seekers and to just be human beings, but they were banned from the hotel. In your view, how widespread an issue is that? Given the control that Mears has over access, how can we unpick the situation to allow the community in, even if we cannot build the proper community that we want?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Maggie Chapman
I take the point that was made earlier about some things being easier in some parts of the country than in others. From the conversations that you have, what particular challenges are there in Aberdeen in relation to the ecology of support organisations? You specifically mentioned issues with accessing legal support, but are there other challenges that we need to address?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
Thank you for that.
Jeremy Allen, you mentioned two avenues: the regulatory frameworks and the consultations. There are opportunities for communities to respond to and influence consultations. Does either of you see any likelihood of a need to adjust the regulatory frameworks? If so, in what directions should they be adjusted?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 27 April 2023
Maggie Chapman
Thank you very much, convener, and thank you for letting me come to this afternoon’s meeting. Good afternoon to the panel and thank you for being here.
I appreciate what Andrew Bowie has already said about the UK Energy Bill that is going through Parliament and the several reviews that are on-going and have yet to report. I know that the timescales are various and things are forthcoming, so there will be some limit to what you can say in some of your answers to these questions.
You referenced the Scottish Government’s draft energy strategy and just transition plan. You will be aware of the very clear commitment to maximising community benefit within that, in relation not only to renewable energy developments but also—as we have heard—to localising transmission and distribution, connectivity, shared ownership and all of that. Given what you have already said this afternoon, and following on from Fiona Hyslop’s questions around the FSO, how do you see the FSO’s role in facilitating those kinds of community benefits in a material way, particularly for rural communities?