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 1227 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee
Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 2 October 2024
Sharon Dowey
Amendment 6 adds to the provisions that would introduce a duty of candour to the Police Service of Scotland (Senior Officers) (Conduct) Regulations 2013. The amendment stipulates that officers who are suspected of committing a criminal offence would no longer be required to follow the duty of candour, which would give them the same rights as civilians. During our evidence sessions, various bodies raised concerns that the duty of candour conflicted with the right against self-incrimination. Notably, in England and Wales, the duty applies only when an officer has been identified as a witness and not a suspect. My amendments 6 and 9 address those concerns.
However, we will support the cabinet secretary’s amendments. The cabinet secretary has indicated that her amendments 7 and 10 address the intention behind my amendments, so we have the same aim. I do not intend to move amendments 6 and 9 at this stage.
Criminal Justice Committee
Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 2 October 2024
Sharon Dowey
Given the cabinet secretary’s comments, I will not move amendment 40, but I press amendment 39.
Amendment 39 agreed to.
Amendment 40 not moved.
Section 15, as amended, agreed to.
Sections 16 and 17 agreed to.
After section 17
Criminal Justice Committee
Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 2 October 2024
Sharon Dowey
I will.
Criminal Justice Committee
Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 2 October 2024
Sharon Dowey
I agree with Russell Findlay’s comments, and I take on board all the cabinet secretary’s comments. It is a very sensitive subject. Amendment 41 was a response to comments about the stress and anxiety that officers felt when they were going through the misconduct process, which could have been a contributing factor that led to suicide. That is why we were looking to amend the bill. I appreciate that it is a sensitive subject and that we need to consider lots of other issues. We will probably want to come back to discuss the matter.
However, given the cabinet secretary’s comments, I will not press amendment 41.
Amendment 41, by agreement, withdrawn.
Amendments 42 and 65 not moved.
Sections 18 to 20 agreed to.
Long Title
Amendment 47 moved—[Angela Constance].
Criminal Justice Committee
Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 2 October 2024
Sharon Dowey
No—the position is as the cabinet secretary said. It is not about consulting every person who has had a complaint in the police system but about taking a group of those people, so that their voices can be heard. We heard evidence on that in the committee. Amendment 4 would ensure that a selection of people were consulted and that we heard their voices in the production of the code of conduct.
Criminal Justice Committee
Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 2 October 2024
Sharon Dowey
Yes.
Amendment 12 agreed to.
Amendments 13 and 51 not moved.
Amendment 14 moved—[Sharon Dowey]—and agreed to.
Amendments 52 and 53 not moved.
Section 6, as amended, agreed to.
After section 6
Amendments 54 to 56, 15 and 58 not moved.
Criminal Justice Committee
Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 2 October 2024
Sharon Dowey
Amendment 39 concerns reviews that the commissioner can undertake into a practice or policy. It will ensure that, before commencing such a review, the commissioner has to consult HMICS. The intention of the amendment is to avoid the duplication of work and to ensure that bodies work co-operatively to streamline the complaints process.
Amendment 40 adds to amendment 39. It would require the commissioner to assist HMICS with any work that is related to such a review. The intention of the amendment is, again, to avoid duplication of work and ensure that bodies work co-operatively to streamline the complaints process. That is a role that sits with HMICS. The cabinet secretary has indicated that she will support amendment 39. I ask her to consider working on amendment 40 to bring it back at stage 3. I look forward to her comments.
I move amendment 39.
Criminal Justice Committee
Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 2 October 2024
Sharon Dowey
I am sure that that is an issue that the cabinet secretary will comment on, but we have heard that constables against whom there is irrefutable evidence that they are guilty of a criminal offence continue to get paid in the police force. That provides no justice for victims, and it represents a cost to the police. The bill says that disciplinary procedures “may” be postponed to allow the criminal case to go first, but it does not say that the criminal case must proceed first. We need the cabinet secretary to clarify that.
My proposal would result in a cost saving for the police force, because it could dismiss someone sooner. In addition, the fact that the outcome of the disciplinary process would be kept private and would not be disclosed to anyone would mean that it should not have an impact on the criminal case.
Criminal Justice Committee
Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 2 October 2024
Sharon Dowey
In the interest of speed, I will just say that I will reflect on the cabinet secretary’s comments and consider whether I can work on any of my amendments in order to bring them back with more clarity at stage 3. I take on board all the cabinet secretary’s points, and I do not have any further comments.
Criminal Justice Committee
Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 2 October 2024
Sharon Dowey
I thank the cabinet secretary for her comments. I am still hopeful that some of the amendments could be brought back at stage 3 if we do a bit more work on them. As I said, the amendments were lodged with the intention of trying to improve the bill.
I will not press amendment 16.
Amendment 16, by agreement, withdrawn.
11:15Amendments 17 and 18 moved—[Sharon Dowey]—and agreed to.
Amendments 19 and 59 not moved.
Amendment 20 moved—[Sharon Dowey]—and agreed to.
Amendment 21 not moved.
Amendments 22 to 24 moved—[Sharon Dowey]—and agreed to.
Amendment 25 not moved.
Section 7, as amended, agreed to.
Section 8—Procedures for misconduct: senior officers
Amendments 26 to 29 not moved.
Section 8 agreed to.
After section 8
Amendments 30 to 32 not moved.
