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 成人快手 and committees will automatically update to show only the 成人快手 and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of 成人快手 and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of 成人快手 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 3543 contributions
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Audrey Nicoll
As the cabinet secretary noted, we are aware that there will be further LCMs, which the committee will consider.
Are members content to delegate responsibility to me and the clerks to approve a short factual report to the Parliament on the LCMs?
Members indicated agreement.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Audrey Nicoll
We will now have a brief suspension to allow for a changeover of Government witnesses.
09:42 Meeting suspended.Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Audrey Nicoll
Our next item of business is consideration of evidence at stage 1 of the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill. I welcome to the meeting Michelle Macleod, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner; Phillip Chapman, director of operations; and Sharon Clelland, head of legal services, and I thank them for their comprehensive written evidence.
I refer members to papers 3 and 4. I should say that I intend to allow up to 90 minutes for this evidence session.
I will kick off with a question for the commissioner. I was interested to note in your written submission your comments on the proposal for a duty of candour, specifically on the issue of officers timeously producing an operational statement to ensure that an investigation can continue without undue delay, or with as little delay as possible. We know that that can be challenging. You suggest:
鈥淎 legislative duty of co-operation for police officers鈥攁nd police staff鈥攚ould compel police officers to provide operational statements and attend within a reasonable timescale for interview.鈥
You then give an example of when that has been challenging. You go on to say:
鈥淭aking into account a person鈥檚 right not to self-incriminate鈥濃
which we have discussed in previous evidence sessions鈥
鈥渢he duty should apply only to officers and staff whose status has already been confirmed as that of a witness鈥.
All of that makes sense, but I am interested in hearing more about where that particular proposal comes from. What are the blockages that have created the timescale issue that you are dealing with? Do you think that compelling someone to produce a statement would work in practice?
There were a couple of questions in there, so I will now hand over to you.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Audrey Nicoll
Both.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Audrey Nicoll
That is an interesting response, which speaks to or is relevant to the potential for your role and the resource requirement around that to expand. The finance committee will look at the issue of models of commissioners.
I will go back to a question on the bill before I bring Sharon Dowey back in, if she still wants to ask a follow-up question.
In evidence, a lived experience witness spoke about the 鈥渨eaponisation鈥 of the system against those who are making complaints鈥攑erhaps through intimidation or obstruction. Is that something that you recognise? Is that a fair characterisation? That was commentary in evidence to us from a person who had been the subject of an investigation.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Audrey Nicoll
Forgive me, cabinet secretary, but may I put you on hold for a second? There is a slight procedural query that I am going to clarify.
I think that we have slightly jumped ahead. We will let you get to the correct part.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Audrey Nicoll
I will come in quickly before Russell Findlay asks his final question. On access to police information, we spoke with the PIRC about access to Police Scotland鈥檚 Centurion system. I take it that you have no access to that.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Audrey Nicoll
Thank you. That leads on quite nicely to another piece of work鈥擨 am stepping outside the bill for a moment, but I suppose that it is indirectly relevant.
You will be aware that the Scottish Parliament Finance and Public Administration Committee is doing a piece of work on the commissioner landscape in Scotland, and is taking evidence on the effectiveness of commissioners and their role.
A number of new commissioner posts have been proposed. However, one of the things that the finance committee has been looking at is why we need commissioners in the first place. What is happening or not happening that means that we need them? Are public bodies not fulfilling some of their duties around the conduct of staff or is there perhaps a wider societal issue, such as the cost of living crisis, that is having an impact on the public generally?
That is a really big question but I am interested in your perspective. You have a very demanding commissioner role鈥攖here are no doubts about that. Do you have any comment on that wider analysis or the question around the role of commissioners? Do we need them? [Laughter.] I know that you will say yes, and that is absolutely fine.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Audrey Nicoll
I have a couple of questions, the first of which relates to the functions of the PIRC, particularly in relation to police officers who have left the service. The bill clarifies the definition of the phrase
鈥減ersons serving with the police鈥
to allow the PIRC to investigate allegations of criminality against officers who have left the service, where the behaviour took place prior to their joining or while they were off duty. In your submission, you provide some evidence that the impact of such a provision could be that you would no longer have to run parallel investigations in certain circumstances. Do you envisage it impacting on any other aspects of CAAPD鈥檚 work or its role, given that it currently deals only with on-duty criminality?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 15 May 2024
Audrey Nicoll
As there are no further questions, we move to consideration of the instrument. I am sure that I do not need to remind officials that only 成人快手 may speak in a debate on the motion. I invite the cabinet secretary to move motion S6M-12734.
Motion moved,
That the Criminal Justice Committee recommends that the International Organisations (Immunities and Privileges) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2024 [draft] be approved.鈥擺Angela Constance]
Motion agreed to.