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 544 contributions
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 19 March 2025
Maurice Golden
I feel that we have run out of steam, unfortunately, so I recommend closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Scottish Government does not consider that there is a need to clarify the definition of protected animals in the 2006 act and the associated guidance, and that it considers the sheep on St Kilda to be protected by the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996, in the same way as any unowned and unmanaged population of wild deer are.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 19 March 2025
Maurice Golden
That is correct. I was looking out for my next pedigree pooch. [Laughter.]
The issue is already covered by existing legislation, but there are precedents for the Parliament going beyond what is already covered by legislation. I think that we should follow up—at least once more, or perhaps finally—by writing to local authorities to seek information on each local authority’s policy on the presence and behaviour of dogs in cemeteries, the number of complaints received in relation to the behaviour of dogs in cemeteries and whether there is any monitoring of cemetery usage. In many parts of Scotland, for lots of people—dog walkers or otherwise—a cemetery is a place where they can access green space. It would be interesting to find out whether local authorities are looking into that, and it would be interesting to know whether any fines have been issued in relation to breaching the current legislation in cemeteries.
10:30Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 19 February 2025
Maurice Golden
To round off some of the discussion, what is the minister’s assessment of how the legislation allows access to justice?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 19 February 2025
Maurice Golden
Just to be clear, is it the Scottish Government’s position that the current approach allows for a justice system that is up to date, fair and respects the rights and diverse needs of users?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 19 February 2025
Maurice Golden
I am sure that we all appreciate that we are running down the clock in this parliamentary session. Is there any more detail on how and when that response might be published?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 19 February 2025
Maurice Golden
Unfortunately for the petitioner, we have reached the end of the road with the petition. The one positive aspect is that the petition called on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government
“to expand universal free school meals provision for all nursery, primary and secondary school pupils.”
As you have highlighted, convener, that has been secured. We therefore have no choice but to close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that a debate on a non-binding motion has taken place, the Scottish Government has reaffirmed its commitment to rolling out the next phase of the free school meals programme to primary 6 and 7 pupils who are in receipt of the Scottish child payment, and it continues to work closely with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and other stakeholders to ensure that the capital work that is required to support the expansion of free school meals can begin. The Government is also considering initial views on a pilot for universal free school meals in secondary schools.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 19 February 2025
Maurice Golden
Particularly at this point in the parliamentary session, it is unacceptable not to have a timeline in place. We should write to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to highlight the time that has elapsed; request an update and a timeline for the Scottish Government’s work, including the stakeholder engagement and public consultation; and, critically, ask whether that will be concluded in the current session. Perhaps we could consider inviting the cabinet secretary to give evidence on the petition at a future meeting.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 19 February 2025
Maurice Golden
What is the Scottish Government’s view on the Competition and Market Authority’s report and its position that the current system of private management of housing estates might lead to consumer detriment?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 19 February 2025
Maurice Golden
I agree with everything that Mr Ewing has said.
I was slightly concerned by the evidence that we took regarding the marketing of and communication about BE FAST rather than FAST. In that regard, I wonder if we could write to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, first to ask whether there is any evidence about whether the addition of two letters to a four-letter word makes any difference to people remembering that term and secondly to find out whether there is any evidence about the effect that adding two letters has on meaning. That might be useful evidence to obtain.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 19 February 2025
Maurice Golden
I think that the petition definitely requires further investigation. On that basis, we should write to the Scottish Government, seeking an update on its work with health boards on developing a plan for patients waiting for delayed reconstructive surgery. Furthermore, we should ask what information is available on the capacity of specialised plastic surgeons and whether the Government has considered how any gaps in the availability of specialised plastic surgery services can be addressed. Finally, we should seek an update on the Government’s commitment to exploring the publication of data on the current waiting times for breast reconstruction surgery.