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 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.
Displaying 2843 contributions
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2021
Sue Webber
Does Scott Heald want to say anything? I am sorry, convener; I am taking over from you.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2021
Sue Webber
Mr Humpherson mentioned that some of the salient gaps in social care data were unmet needs, outcomes and demographics. How could we start capturing that data?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2021
Sue Webber
Thank you—that was very helpful. You mentioned that one of the challenges is with local collection, due to a lack of investment specifically with regard to local authorities. Is enough work being undertaken to understand those issues? Investment is a big issue, but what other hurdles and gaps might exist when it comes to data collection? What is it that creates the variance?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 16 November 2021
Sue Webber
I understand the rationale for the interim care facilities, but surely they are just going to result in more of the most vulnerable people making multiple moves over a short period of time from one facility to the next. What will happen if there is no care package in the community after the six weeks? If the community care issues could be solved in six weeks, why has that not happened already? This is all the stuff that is going round in my brain. Also, delayed discharge is not new. If anything, during Covid, we had some rapid discharges from hospitals into care facilities and we are now looking back and being a little bit reticent about those decisions.
I am trying to figure out what will happen if, after the six weeks, nothing is in place in the community. Also, how many people are currently in what are classed as interim care facilities? Where is that data recorded? Are they still classified as delayed discharges? I ask those questions so that we can get a sense of how things are progressing.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 16 November 2021
Sue Webber
Thank you, convener. In the question on the theme of delayed discharges, I should have declared that I am a City of Edinburgh Council councillor. I apologise.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 16 November 2021
Sue Webber
I hope that my question will follow on nicely from those of Stephanie Callaghan and Carol Mochan.
I want to ask you about health inequalities across Scotland, minister. You mentioned the established and successful CAMH service in Grampian but, in Lothian, it is quite a different story for the many young people who are trying to access services. The counselling is being rolled out quite differently across local authorities—some are lagging behind or doing very little. As taxpayers, we want to ensure that every single penny is spent well and reflects the intended purpose of the investment. What actions are you taking to address those inequalities in the delivery of mental health services across the country?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 16 November 2021
Sue Webber
Scotland has only 13 health boards, but many more local authorities. There is a small cohort of healthcare providers. What can the Scottish Government do now to be more forceful and to ensure that best practice, such as in Grampian, is not just spoken about but is consistently implemented across the country?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 16 November 2021
Sue Webber
Minister, you have mentioned a number of times the importance of listening to the voices of those with lived experience. As we heard from Paul O’Kane, the suicide prevention action plan from 2018 was reviewed back in March. The plan stated:
“Our vision is supported by our key strategic aims of a Scotland where ... people at risk of suicide feel able to ask for help, and have access to skilled staff and well-coordinated support”.
I have been contacted by a friend who knew two ladies who, tragically, both committed suicide very recently and who had cried out for help many times. Both were looking for access to rehabilitation services. One woman was told that she could not be helped because she was not on benefits and “looked amazing”. She took a paracetamol overdose when drunk, and she died four days later sober. I am emotional—I am sorry. Her other friend lost her job of 33 years. She was in the system and well known, and she was desperate for help. She hanged herself and left her young family behind. They were both able to ask for help, but it was denied. That is the harsh reality of what is happening again and again in our communities.
What is the Scottish Government doing now to help these people? Those suicides could have been prevented. Today, I want to make sure that we acknowledge that their lives mattered. I want those in decision-making positions to be able to do something about that.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 16 November 2021
Sue Webber
The level of local service being X in one place and non-existent in another is relevant to the earlier discussion about mental health.
Is economic modelling under way to cost the proposals? I am looking at a chart that shows the number of care homes in Scotland. There are 1,069, 63 per cent of which are privately owned and 23 per cent of which are run by the voluntary or not-for-profit sector. That means that the balance—142 care homes—is under local authority control. I apologise for giving a lot of numbers. In relation to the economics of funding something or the reforms that might happen, what economic modelling is taking place?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 9 November 2021
Sue Webber
Yes, it is. Thank you, convener. My colleague mentioned the fact that sport is perceived as costly, but, often, that cost is related to access to facilities, which is associated with charges payable to local authorities. What can you do to ensure that the costs to the clubs and participants are reduced and that local authorities keep rents as low as possible?