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 1923 contributions
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Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
Before I speak about the police—I will speak to Derek Frew about that, obviously—I want to go back to something that Dr Williams said. I raised the difficulty that people face in getting to see a GP in our evidence session last week. It has become much more difficult. You almost have to get past the receptionist, whereas before, you could phone up, ask for an appointment and be given one. Now people have to explain what is wrong with them to somebody who is not a GP. I do not know whether you agree with me, but that must put people off, particularly people with mental health issues. They may not want to discuss it, so people will be put off and we will miss people. What do you think about that?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
I am sure that officers on the ground will tell you—as they will tell any of us—that the police are risk averse. That is not a criticism, by the way; it is just the reality.
You mentioned the situation down south. Ultimately, the solution will come down to finding the best way of dealing with people who have mental health problems and who need help. The question is: are the police the best people to do that? The answer is sometimes yes, but it is often no. That has been examined down south. The police there have a system called the right care, right person approach. Humberside Police took that up and it believes that, on average, 1,400 officer hours every month have been saved by adopting that different approach. If it was applied across the whole of England, it could save up to 1 million police hours a year. That shows that it is a good thing from a resources point of view to deal with things differently.
We should not completely rule out what is being done in England. We should look at whether we can learn from it, because we do not want Police Scotland to be tied up dealing with cases that are not its job.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
That is—
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
That has all been really useful, and I thank everyone for contributing.
I should say that my understanding of the Metropolitan Police system is that they respond to 999 mental health calls only where there is an immediate threat to life. I am not sure how someone is meant to judge that over the phone; it seems to me to be a rather blunt system. Perhaps we can improve the way in which we deal with things.
Convener, I do not know whether I have time to ask the witnesses about the model that is used in Trieste. I do not know whether you want me to do so.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
It is mentioned in the report that, in Trieste, Italy, they have set up what is essentially a new way of dealing with mental health. The system operates through a network of mental health centres that operate 24 hours a day. People do not need an appointment—they can just walk in. It has not only improved the way in which mental health is dealt with in that area; it is also cheaper than what was there before. That is not why they do it—it has just ended up that way.
You do not have to comment if you have not read that section of the report or if you do not know about the model, but if you have read it and you have any views on it, we would be keen to hear them.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
Yes?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 16 November 2023
Graham Simpson
It is, and it is good to know that other people want to come in on this important question.
I was about to say that it is encouraging to hear what Derek Frew said about the project in Forth Valley—I would like to know a little bit more about that—and the discussion that is coming up on 22 November. It is great that we are examining the issue. It would be good if we could get to a system whereby, even if police are called out, they can contact somebody else who can take on the case.
Convener, I do not know who you want to bring in.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
Graham Simpson
Can I come in there?
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
Graham Simpson
I am seeing somebody else nodding. Who is that? It is Paula Fraser, I think.
Public Audit Committee
Section 23 Report: “Adult mental health”
Meeting date: 9 November 2023
Graham Simpson
I go back to Jo Anderson. You mentioned the model in NHS England. Why are we not doing something similar? Why is NHS Scotland not doing it? Has anyone asked it to do that?
