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 1265 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 26 November 2025
Angela Constance
Given the technical aspects of the question, I will refer to my notes, if you do not mind. Where an application is in progress, the police could write to the gender recognition panel to detail their concerns and would require to have a clear reasoning for doing so. I am not sure that that answers your question—apologies. I am checking with my officials.
I think that Mr Kerr’s question is in relation to whether a registered sex offender who is already in receipt of a gender recognition certificate prior to conviction is still required to notify the police.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 26 November 2025
Angela Constance
I will start, and Graham Robertson can continue. I want to try to keep this as simple as possible. In relation to notification requirements, there is obviously the initial notification following an offence, and people are required to submit a range of information to the police. There are also requirements for people who change their information; Graham Robertson can add to that. We are also looking at further measures in the Crime and Policing Bill. The interactions between the different kinds of legislation are quite intricate, so I will pass you over to Graham Robertson, if you do not mind.
12:15Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 26 November 2025
Angela Constance
The SSI adds a requirement for someone to notify the police if they apply for a gender recognition certificate when they have been convicted of a sexual offence that requires notification. There is a list of information that they would have to notify the police of. The SSI adds to the long list of information requirements that people have to adhere to a requirement for that person to notify the police if they apply for a GRC. The SSI is focused and specific, and I am not sure what other concerns you are referring to, Ms Dowey.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 26 November 2025
Angela Constance
There are automatic exclusions. Examples of such exclusions include: if the prisoner does not consent; if they are subject to notification requirements under part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003—that is, if they are a registered sex offender; if they are subject to an extended sentence; or if they are subject to a supervised release order. Those exclusions are to ensure that, where the court has decided that there is an elevated risk and a short-term prisoner needs a supervised release order once they are out, such prisoners are subject to an extended sentence or have to be part of sex offender notification—
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 26 November 2025
Angela Constance
The number of people and the resource are increasing. My expectation is that, when a court orders something, it will occur.
Ms Clark makes an important point about confidence in the availability of community disposals, and indeed that is why I have had a particular focus on community justice. However, part of the work of the sentencing and penal policy commission is to examine not only how custody operates but how community disposals are used. In short, much more work needs to be done.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 26 November 2025
Angela Constance
As I said earlier, officials proactively came to me to discuss the content of the DPLR Committee’s report. I have not looked in detail at the concerns to do with the drafting of the instrument, although officials have certainly raised all those issues with me.
I will ask Ms Hutchison and other officials to answer any questions on drafting. I am not a lawyer—I am all about the policy and the intent. I have a prison population that I need to address and, if you will forgive me, that is my priority, notwithstanding the importance of the issue.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 26 November 2025
Angela Constance
I am not conceding that point. The information and advice that I have had is that, although the DPLR Committee and members have raised concerns, I am not aware of any suggestion that we are acting outwith our legal competence or are engaging in any illegality.
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 26 November 2025
Angela Constance
I take advice from officials on drafting. Ms Hutchison, do you have anything to add?
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 26 November 2025
Angela Constance
On the here and now, the borrowing limits on the Scottish Government, set by the UK Government, are a real constraint. However, what is more specific to justice is the fact that, even were Police Scotland to borrow, that would have to be covered by the justice portfolio, so there is no additionality as a result of borrowing by Police Scotland or other justice partners. We are constrained by the lack of flexibility in our overall—
Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 26 November 2025
Angela Constance
In moving the motion, I want to put on record my appreciation of the committee’s time and scrutiny of the policy and the issues that have been raised by the DPLR Committee. I have listened carefully. I know that members around this table have an understanding of the gravity of the situation that is faced in our prisons, and that they also understand that the Scottish Government is working hard to pursue as many initiatives as possible so that we have a full range of action to alleviate the very stressful position in our prison service today.
Motion moved,
That the Criminal Justice Committee recommends that the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019 and the Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Act 2025 (Consequential Modifications) Regulations 2026 [draft] be approved.—[Angela Constance]
Motion agreed to.
