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.
Criathragan Hide all filters
Displaying 1331 contributions
|
Criminal Justice Committee Draft
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 5 November 2025
Liam Kerr
I have one final question. You have been very candid and robust in your written submission and in your remarks. Last week, I read in The Sun that a senior police source has suggested that, if the police do not get the money that you say that you need and that you have asked for in the submission, you will not be able to do what you want to do and you would, therefore, consider your position. It is only fair that I give you the opportunity to respond to that report and say whether it is accurate. Regardless of the accuracy, how serious would it be for you personally, given how frank you have been, if you do not get the money that you say that you need?
Criminal Justice Committee Draft
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 5 November 2025
Liam Kerr
Chris Brown, you heard me earlier investigate the potential consequences for the police workforce if they do not receive the additional resource funding that they have requested. In your remarks to the convener earlier, you said that that would mean fewer personnel. What do you understand to be the implications that not receiving the full funding requested and a reduced workforce would have on policing in Scotland?
Criminal Justice Committee Draft
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 5 November 2025
Liam Kerr
I am very grateful to you all.
Criminal Justice Committee Draft
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 5 November 2025
Liam Kerr
The figures before us that project what is coming up in future will have been prepared over a considerable time. However, the Scottish Government is proposing to release up to 1,000 criminals early between now and April. Did the Scottish Government seek advice from the police, based on previous release programmes, on the costs that Police Scotland might incur as a result of any early release? In any event, do you take a view on the Scottish Police Federation’s recently launched “Assault the police? No early release” campaign?
Criminal Justice Committee Draft
Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 November 2025
Liam Kerr
Good morning. My first question is to Liliana Torres Jiménez, and I remind colleagues that I am currently regulated by the Law Society of Scotland, of which I am a member.
Liliana, in your submission and opening remarks, you talked about your concerns about the definition of sexual acts and the proposed penalties. Could you expand on your concerns and tell us what needs to be amended to address them?
In your submission, you brought up the policy memorandum, which specifically says that the bill aims to
“reduce the amount of prostitution in Scotland”.
Will the bill, as drafted and/or amended, achieve that?
Criminal Justice Committee Draft
Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 November 2025
Liam Kerr
You successfully pre-empted where I was going with that question about the contradiction between what Ash Regan told the committee on 25 June about not necessarily needing women’s evidence and your suggestion in your opening submissions. You referenced specifically the situations in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Is the matter of whether people in prostitution need to give evidence the only evidential challenge that has been faced there, or have you seen other evidential challenges that cause you concern?
Criminal Justice Committee Draft
Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 5 November 2025
Liam Kerr
Yes, it does—thank you. I am going to press you, Dr Forbes, simply because your submission specifically says that the Crown Office is “mindful of the challenges” in enforcing the legislation in Ireland and is
“concerned that ... prosecutors in Scotland will face similar evidential barriers”.
What are those evidential barriers that you might face that would be similar? I am trying to understand that.
Criminal Justice Committee Draft
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 5 November 2025
Liam Kerr
You heard me earlier talk about the capital side of things. The SPA submission says that
“underinvestment in the police estate and technology remains one of the most pressing investment issues for policing”
and that the move to the single force has exacerbated that. The submission suggests that Police Scotland requires an increased capital investment of £93.9 million
“to deliver the basic rolling replacement programme of fleet, systems and policing equipment”,
which does not include some other things that would ideally be done. Again, this begs the question what would not receiving the increased investment mean for that basic programme, and what are the practical implications for policing?
Criminal Justice Committee Draft
Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 5 November 2025
Liam Kerr
I am very grateful, convener. Good morning. Chief constable, in your written submission, you set out that, should you not receive the additional £113.4 million funding requested for strengthening the front line, workforce modernisation savings will have to be identified. Can you put numbers on that in terms of officers? What would be the practical implications for policing, should you have to make those savings?
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
Liam Kerr
Cabinet secretary, in your opening remarks, you talked about the continuing rise in, and complexity of, the population. That is acknowledged, but that was all entirely predictable and has been known about for years—for example, as this place has been legislating. The measures to address this that you spoke about in your opening remarks clearly are not working to prevent overcrowding. In fact, in the submission that we heard about earlier, Victim Support Scotland said that the early release schemes
“are not effective in reducing the prison population in the medium or longer term.”
Therefore, how can the public be assured that, having previously endured the early release scheme and facing the release of a further 1,000 prisoners between now and, I think, April, we will not simply find ourselves in this situation again post-April?
