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 478 contributions
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Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Point of Order
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Tess White
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I would like to raise—[Inaudible.]
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Decision Time
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Tess White
I will wait until after decision time.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Tess White
The equalities regulator wrote to NHS Fife last week, pointing out that, under statutory public sector equality duties, the health board must
“assess and review proposed new or revised policies or practices”.
The Herald reports today that NHS Fife skipped that vital step when it allowed a trans-identified male doctor to use a female changing room. This is serious. It means that the health board might have failed to comply with its legal obligations to assess the impact of its policies on women. So, let me ask the cabinet secretary a very simple question: does she know how many other national health service institutions are operating this potentially unlawful policy?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Tess White
The EHRC was clear in its correspondence that the Scottish Government—we are talking about the Scottish Government—has a role in ensuring that NHS Scotland and other public bodies are meeting their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010. I am glad that the cabinet secretary says today that it will fulfil its duties.
Caroline Lamb is the chief executive of NHS Scotland and sits at the Scottish Government’s top table as director general for health and social care. Failings such as these lead straight to the heart of the Scottish Government. Scottish National Party ministers keep trying to ride two horses with regard to single-sex spaces, but they cannot keep reading out the same script that says that sex is protected under the Equality Act 2010 while arguing in the United Kingdom’s highest court that sex does not mean biological sex. My question is: will this SNP Government protect single-sex spaces for biological women in Scotland’s public services—yes or no?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Point of Order
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Tess White
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I would like to raise a point of order under rule 6.2(f) of the standing orders of this Parliament. Today, I tried to ask a question about reports that the former SNP MP Alison Thewliss had been hired by Rape Crisis Scotland—a body that is, of course, funded by the Scottish Government. Two years ago, Alison Thewliss was photographed at a protest near a sign that read “Decapitate TERFs”. Women deserve to know whether she has been hired by a Rape Crisis charity that is funded largely by the Scottish Government. However, not only was I interrupted by the committee convener, but other members of the committee were seen gesturing to the technicians to cut off the live feed of the committee session. Even worse than that, after the session, several members of the committee warned me not to ask similar questions in the future. Presiding Officer, is it ever legitimate for MSPs to be pressured not to ask valid questions of this Government?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Point of Order
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Tess White
Thank you, Presiding Officer. This is such a serious matter that I would like to raise it with you after this meeting of Parliament today.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Topical Question Time
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Tess White
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its role in ensuring that public bodies are meeting their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010, following recent correspondence from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. (S6T-02370)
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Decision Time
Meeting date: 25 February 2025
Tess White
On a point of order, Presiding Officer.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Scottish Income Tax Rate Resolution 2025-26
Meeting date: 20 February 2025
Tess White
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I could not vote. I would have voted no.
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Business Motion
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Tess White
I thank Jackie Baillie, and I completely agree with her that the Scottish Government and its agencies are not above the law.
The situation that has arisen in NHS Fife speaks volumes about what is happening behind closed doors in Scotland’s public sector under the SNP Government. The reality is that Nicola Sturgeon’s self-identification policy has binned the rights of biologically female employees to access single-sex spaces. Taxpayers’ money is being used to cover legal costs to defend a public body’s gender policy, but there is no transparency over the cost to the public purse because the health board involved will not disclose that information. That is simply not acceptable, especially when the health service is in crisis and budgets are being squeezed.
It has been reported that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray, was made aware in June last year of the situation in NHS Fife and the legal implications of it. We need clarity over Neil Gray’s involvement or lack thereof.
The public interest in the issue is huge. It has been covered extensively in the press and MSPs have been contacted by constituents with legitimate questions and concerns, and yet we have not been able to bring those questions to the chamber. Topical questions, First Minister’s questions and urgent questions that have been lodged on the issue have not been selected. Meanwhile, our colleagues in Westminster have been able to raise it. It is deeply disappointing that, once again, this Parliament cannot discharge its duties to the public because members do not have parliamentary privilege.
Women are watching today. The public has had enough of the recent abdication, obfuscation and moral cowardice from the Government, and we are only going to see more witch hunts at the public’s expense if we do not get clarity on the Scottish Government’s position. I urge members to support my amendment.
I move amendment S6M-16518.1, to leave out first “5.15 pm Decision Time” and insert:
“followed by Ministerial Statement: Public Sector Workers’ Access to Single Sex Spaces
5.45 pm Decision Time”.
