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 774 contributions
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 March 2025
Brian Whittle
We discussed the failings of the system with the previous witnesses. What would you do to get the bill into a position in which you were more comfortable with the whole trauma-informed approach?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 March 2025
Brian Whittle
I want to reflect on how the bill deals with the role of the third sector. I am aware of the way in which East Ayrshire dealt with the issues previously with its wraparound service, which seemed to be a success, but I am also aware of the pressure that it is currently under. I am thinking about the role of the third sector in facilitating access to treatment. It is very much a gateway or doorway, if you like, before people get to statutory services. Where does the bill sit in relation to delivering a holistic approach with the third sector? Since I started with my specific knowledge of East Ayrshire—one of my colleagues here knows even more about it than I do—I will bring in Liam Wells first.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 March 2025
Brian Whittle
I have a simple question to start with. What impact would the bill have on staff working in the sector?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 March 2025
Brian Whittle
Dr Galea-Singer, I am interested in what you said about the things that are being called for in the bill already happening in your jurisdiction. If that is the case, that is fantastic. However, the overwhelming evidence is that it is not happening across the country, as there is a rising number of deaths related to drug and alcohol addiction. In my view, the bill sets out a right to be treated within three weeks, which is incredibly important for somebody who has the bravery to come forward and ask for treatment. Much as you are saying that that is happening in your jurisdiction, would you accept that that is not the case across Scotland?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 March 2025
Brian Whittle
Okay.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 March 2025
Brian Whittle
Does the bill suggest that the patient can demand the treatment that they want? Surely it asks the healthcare professional to deliver the treatment that is required.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 March 2025
Brian Whittle
I will add another layer to that question. The financial memorandum says that
“the implementation of the Bill will lead to more completed treatments”
and
“fewer repeat appointments”,
offsetting the additional staff time required to provide written statements of reasons or second opinions.
I want to dig into the preventative stuff, because I think that contradictory things have been said today. Some of you have said that that is already being delivered, but it has also been said that there are 15 times as many drug-related deaths among people living in poverty as there are in other areas, so the system is obviously not working across the board. Access to services for people in poverty is the important consideration.
There is an idea that we could reduce the workload by preventing people from sliding back into addictive behaviour, but do you agree with that statement in the financial memorandum?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 March 2025
Brian Whittle
Thank you for giving us your time. How does the approach taken by the bill acknowledge and integrate the principles of trauma-informed practice?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 March 2025
Brian Whittle
I will expand that point. I completely agree about squeezing the third sector and the importance of that sector in what we are doing. Squeezing the third sector puts more burden on statutory services. I met the psychiatry services only last week. There are other failings elsewhere and there has been, for example, an 800 per cent rise in requests for a diagnosis of ADHD. That all puts pressure on the system. I am slightly confused about how, if that is already happening—which you said in answer to my earlier question—introducing the bill would increase pressure on the sector.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 March 2025
Brian Whittle
I have been listening with great interest to what you have said. You have highlighted eloquently that the whole-system approach is currently failing, and we have talked about housing and education. We heard the example of a psychiatrist making a diagnosis without prior knowledge. For me, that is a big issue—communications in healthcare are really poor. There is a whole cross-portfolio issue that wraps around this, and it suggests to me that the system is not working for many people.
If what the bill is highlighting is that the system itself is not working, and if we can amend it to suit, we cannot decide not to proceed with it just because the system is flawed in a cross-portfolio way. As has been said, we have an issue in Scotland specifically, but I keep asking why that is and I never get an answer. If we have that system-led problem across Scotland, surely we need to find ways of addressing it. I think that the bill is capable of being manoeuvred into a position where it will have a very positive effect. We cannot decide not to proceed with it just because the system itself is flawed.
10:15