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 2633 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 27 May 2025
Douglas Ross
The medical professional will know what work has to be done by the patient, the third sector and others to get somebody ready. However, if, having gone through the process of meeting with the individual, remotely or in person, the medical professional is saying that the individual is ready for residential rehab, that person should get that treatment within three weeks. That is why it is part of the medical assessment.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 27 May 2025
Douglas Ross
Yes. The course of treatment should start within three weeks. Currently, if the course of treatment is X, there will be other work that needs to be done in advance of that. However, once the determination is made that the right approach is a particular treatment option listed in section 1(5) of the bill, that treatment will have to start within three weeks.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 27 May 2025
Douglas Ross
I believe that it is, because we have included in the bill the ability for ministers to increase some of its provisions. Section 9(1) says that a “drug”
“includes any intoxicant other than alcohol”.
What is meant by “alcohol” is clear, but, because “drug” means “any intoxicant”, if a new drug comes on the market that is deemed to be an intoxicant, it will be covered by section 9(1).
You also mention the MAT standards, which are important. Last week, we heard a lot from the cabinet secretary and witnesses about the standards. Again, the bill seeks in no way to replace the MAT standards but to work alongside them. The committee will be aware of this, but it is important that others understand that the MAT standards have no statutory underpinning. The bill would make statutory provision. That is the difference; the bill provides a legal framework. People have an ambition to deliver the MAT standards, but the standards have no statutory underpinning.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 27 May 2025
Douglas Ross
I gave that quite a lot of thought. I am trying not to be overly prescriptive and I do not want to say too much in the bill. There are elements of that that could be included in the code of practice. It is important that people who are entitled to residential rehab, in the view of the medical professional, get it in some form.
Drafting the bill is difficult, because we have not achieved even the Scottish Government’s target for additional beds—it is due by March 2026. We do not know where all the beds will be. Some will be with independent providers and some will be available through the health service. It was a decision not to include any specific choice. It is not like people will get their top three options, but I absolutely agree that services are very varied in what they offer and how they offer it.
That would go back into the discussion that the individual would have with the medical professional. The medical professional would determine a course of treatment that people could follow to hopefully overcome their drug and alcohol addiction issues, not a specific destination that that person should go to. I would be happy to look at that, but I worry that it would add complexities that would make it more difficult to deliver the bill. We could certainly tease that out during future stages, because it deserves wider consideration.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 27 May 2025
Douglas Ross
I mentioned nicotine because it came up in earlier evidence sessions. Mr Whittle discussed the idea that some people could be addicted to nicotine and some people could be addicted to chocolate. The definition in the bill relates to substances that intoxicate people and to which they become addicted. Someone can become addicted to prescribed drugs, so that would be covered under the bill.
Ms Fraser, do you want to add anything?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 May 2025
Douglas Ross
So, you were aware at those meetings that they were about the legislation that we are scrutinising, and, despite that, you have had no engagement with the Government on the bill since 9 December.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 May 2025
Douglas Ross
Were the meetings up to and including 9 December solely about the bill or were they general update meetings with the Scottish Government?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 May 2025
Douglas Ross
Thank you. You have put that on the record.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 May 2025
Douglas Ross
Yes.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 May 2025
Douglas Ross
Good morning, and welcome to the 17th meeting of the Education, Children and Young People Committee in 2025. This morning, we will continue to take evidence on the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill at Stage 1, with two panels of witnesses joining us.
I welcome the witnesses on the first panel: Sarah Collins, national officer for further education, Educational Institute of Scotland; Liam Davenport, industrial officer, Public and Commercial Services Union; Nicola Jackson, Unison steward, Skills Development Scotland; Mary Senior, Scotland official, University and College Union, Scotland; and John Lewis, Scottish Funding Council workplace representative at Unite the Union.
We have a lot to get through, but we are keen to hear your views and opinions. I will first ask the question that I have asked every panel so far during the scrutiny of the bill. What is the problem that the bill seeks to address and hopefully resolve, and does it do that, in your view and that of your organisation? Mr Lewis, because you are in my line of sight, I will start with you.
