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 696 contributions
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
I thank Mr Kerr for his very passionate presentation about ice sport. He identified that there are really good reasons to celebrate it but that there are huge challenges for the sector. Lots of local authorities have a sports council to support and promote individuals progressing through any of these sports, but the biggest challenge is in trying to find facilities that they can go to. As Liam Kerr identified, many local authorities may not be in a strong financial position. One of the biggest issues is that people sometimes have to travel vast distances to find a facility that they can use in order to train regularly. Have you had any correspondence or negotiations with sport councils about what they are considering to ensure that the ice sport sector is given the priority that it deserves across the country?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
You have summarised the process well, convener. At this stage, there is not much requirement for the committee to take things further. It would therefore be appropriate to close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders. As you have indicated, the First Minister has apologised to the women who were convicted, Natalie Don is continuing to progress her member’s bill, and the petitioner has indicated that plans are being taken forward for a national memorial. Under those circumstances, there is not much point in the committee progressing things, because they have already moved on considerably since the petition was lodged.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
I note the petitioner’s comments, and it is also interesting to see the information that has come back from the Scottish Government. Looking at the permitted development rights on digital infrastructure, I am not sure that, in reality, we can take the petition much further. Therefore, I propose that we close it under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Scottish Government has recently reviewed and updated the permitted development rights for digital infrastructure, considered its position and struck “an appropriate balance” and that there are no current plans for further amendments to those rights.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
You have already alluded to the fact that potential gaps still exist around the MAT standards. Is anything still needed to ensure that the standards are fully implemented and working as intended?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
Did the Scottish Government consult with the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce on the evidence gap that was identified regarding prescription medication being made available to individuals who are in custody? If so, what progress has been made on that?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
I concur. As you have identified, the petition has been quite a harrowing one for the individuals involved. Without question, a gap seems to have arisen, and it would be appropriate for us to recommend that we have a specific statutory offence to alleviate some of the problems that have been identified.
Fergus Ewing is correct when he talks about the difficulties that individuals have suffered in going through this process. The difficulties have been exacerbated and aggravated by circumstances and situations in the agencies that are there to provide support. There needs to be some clarity there. Going down this route might give us the opportunity to ensure that some of the problems are ironed out and that individuals who go through the process do not suffer the same consequences that others have.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
I, too, thank Monica Lennon for her presentation; she made some very valid points on the petitioner’s behalf about the way forward.
Convener, you have identified that advertising is one of the biggest issues. There is a need to find out what action is being taken. These days, when someone purchases a ticket, nine times out of 10 it is not from an individual but through a machine. The machine tells them what the price of the ticket is, so they are not necessarily able to understand what options are available. They hit the button and it tells them what they can have. That process may not give them the cheapest or best-value ticket. Some of that needs to be looked at.
We have talked about technology and ensuring that developments can be made, but there is room for improvement as to how that can be managed on the ground.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
You have identified that there is a postcode lottery for some services, depending on location and geographical situations and circumstances. That is important because, if services are not fully implemented and working collectively across the whole estate and the whole country, there will be massive gaps for individuals, who are at risk if they are in that situation.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
Is it correct to say that the gap was identified during the process?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
I am disappointed that neither Callum nor the committee has received any further information. There was a huge amount of publicity around Callum’s coming to the committee to give evidence that day, and I would have hoped for such a young inspiring individual to be treated slightly better than that. However, we are where we are.
It is now time to write back to the First Minister to seek an update on where we are with the petition. When we had Callum here to receive the petition, there was a real buzz about the possibility of his ask becoming a reality, because he had put so much effort into it. It is disappointing that that effort has not been given the full credit that it deserves.
We need to write back to the First Minister and invite the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport to give evidence on where the petition might be going, in order to fulfil the aims that Callum put forward. His objectives and ambition were fantastic, and we should encourage them as much as we can to ensure that his dream becomes a reality.