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 łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees will automatically update to show only the łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of łÉČËżěĘÖ 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 713 contributions
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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee (Hybrid)
Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
I thank Melanie Field for her opening statement. The Scottish Government asserts that the bill will not change rights under the 2010 act, but it has not produced a reasoned explanation for its position. The EHRC’s letter of July 2021 to the Trans Legal Project says:
“we think that it is unlikely that a trans person without a GRC can claim direct discrimination on the grounds of gender reassignment if they are denied access to a single or separate sex service that corresponds with their lived gender.”
The EHRC has since revisited its guidance on single-sex spaces and services. Will you provide an update on that?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee (Hybrid)
Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 17 May 2022
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
Good morning, panel, and thank you for your opening statements.
I want to ask about lowering the minimum age at which a person can apply for legal gender recognition. I think that I am correct in saying that the Scottish Trans Alliance has welcomed that, but it has also stated:
“there should also be provisions for individuals struggling with their application to request support, and these should be especially sensitive to those under 18 who may be applying without the support of their parent or guardian.”
The alliance then goes on to say:
“explainers ... on ... what a GRC means, and how it could be used would ... be helpful”.
Do you think that, if individuals of a certain age are unable to understand
“what a GRC means, and how it could be used”
and require additional support to understand and submit an application, it might be unwise to lower the minimum age? That question is for Vic Valentine, first of all.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Meeting date: 10 May 2022
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
I support amendments 2, 3 and 5 in the name of the cabinet secretary, as they improve clarity around who will receive a pardon as well as widen the scope of the pardon appropriately, even if that is likely to affect only a small number of people.
The bill, as introduced, contains some ambiguities around qualifying conduct. As a result, I have lodged amendment 15, which, alongside amendments 9, 10 and 11 in the name of my colleague Alexander Stewart, seeks to remove some of the potential for the bill to be misinterpreted and for an individual to mistakenly believe that they have received a pardon. As the improved drafting in amendment 3, in the name of the cabinet secretary, will also achieve that goal, I am happy to support that amendment, regardless of the fact that it pre-empts other amendments in the group.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
Thank you for your opening statements. I want to put to you a question that I put to the previous panel. A common theme in the discussion with the previous panel, which emerged in relation to the pandemic, was that of whether a child should have the autonomy to decide for themselves the manner in which they wish to be heard, including whether that is online or in person, and also how they wish to be represented. The implementation of article 12 of the UNCRC would strengthen a child’s right to have their views heard. Do you think that being more flexible and adaptable to what the child is comfortable with is key to the court making the best decision in the interests of the child?
May Dunsmuir, I put that question to you first, because it is about how children feel and how relaxed they are, and you mentioned things that might help with that, such as straws, round tables and suits.
11:30Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
Alistair Hogg, you spoke about being on that journey and having the right foundations in place. You talked about children being prepared, informed and supported before and after meetings. What are your views on attendance online or in person?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
I have one more question. Earlier, you mentioned that, when things went online during the pandemic, children felt that they were not heard. We heard from witnesses in earlier evidence sessions that many people found online sessions better, but some people did not, as you have said. Do you have any views on that?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
I mean in relation to the pandemic, children’s hearings and all the systems. We spoke about that earlier, and Sarah Axford mentioned that children’s views were not heard when things moved online and so on. Does the 2020 act need to be changed or amended in any way to take into account where we are today and the fact that a pandemic can happen?
10:45Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
Thank you. Jordan Croan, you mentioned that, in the last year, more than 1,600 people came to your service. Do you have any views from them to give us on whether they would like to be online or present in the room?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
My colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy spoke about the 2020 act, and Dr Barnes Macfarlane talked about putting comments in to make sure that certain things are covered, such as making sure that the views of children under the age of 12 are heard.
My colleague Karen Adam talked about the pandemic. With the 1995 act being there and now the 2020 act coming into force, I hope, but not in force yet, is there anything that you now feel should be in the 2020 act that you did not feel should be in it at the time? Dr Barnes Macfarlane, you talked about reviewing that. Is there anything that you would bring into that act now that was not there before?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Children’s Participation in Court Decision Making
Meeting date: 19 April 2022
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
I thank the panel members for their opening statements. My question is about judicial specialisation. Some legal systems around the world and in the UK make greater use of specialised family courts or family judges. In the larger urban areas of Scotland, some young people have access to specialist sheriffs, but others do not have that access. What impact would a wider roll-out of judicial specialisation have on children and young people’s participation in decision making?
