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 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.
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Displaying 1923 contributions
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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Neurodivergence
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Maggie Chapman
Hi, everyone. I am the Scottish Green MSP for North East Scotland and the deputy convener of the committee.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Neurodivergence
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Maggie Chapman
It seems as if none of that is done with the interests of the child in mind.
Given how the conversation has developed, does anybody want to comment on the impact of the challenges around diagnosis, such as the lack of diagnostic pathways in some places, or the very long delays to diagnosis? What is the effect of that, given that we have heard that, although diagnosis should not be necessary to get support, it often is?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Neurodivergence
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Maggie Chapman
Good morning, folks, and thank you for your contributions so far. I will follow the same lines of questioning that Pam Gosal started. Laura Buchan and Graeme Gallie both spoke about the need to have awareness, and ensuring that staff are trained to identify vulnerabilities. Perhaps this is a question for you, Graeme. In a situation where you are attending an incident, is it ever appropriate to ask a question about that? I am thinking about not so much a direct question such as “Are you neurodiverse?”, but something like, “Are there any support issues we should be aware of?” Does that happen or should it happen, routinely?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Neurodivergence
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Maggie Chapman
I have one more question for you, if I may, about whether you have what you need.
Without thinking about the criminal justice system at all, we have heard elsewhere that barriers to assessment, support and diagnosis exist in communities across Scotland. Do you see the same pressure on services? Can you get somebody in to speak to somebody who might need a diagnosis? I suppose that I am asking whether you need more in order to create the supportive, safe and secure environment for everybody that you want to have.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Neurodivergence
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Maggie Chapman
We are all interested in preventing and limiting repeat contact. Are we getting it right?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Neurodivergence
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Maggie Chapman
That is really helpful. I suppose it comes back to what Sarah Angus said about the need for support and preventative work when the person is in custody or on remand in prison.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Neurodivergence
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Maggie Chapman
May, do you want to comment?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Neurodivergence
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Maggie Chapman
Hello again, everyone. Thank you for being here and for your initial contributions. I want to pick up on a couple of things that you have said. Rob, you talked about the need for pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis support. Can you say a bit more about what is working—if and when it works—and about what you mean by adequate and appropriate pre and post-diagnostic support?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Neurodivergence
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Maggie Chapman
Thanks very much. I will come to Jenny Miller. I am familiar with some of the work that PAMIS does, as it is based in Dundee. Could you say a bit more about why the post-diagnostic support that you provide is so important? How do you deal with the gaps in provision that are so apparent?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee [Draft]
Neurodivergence
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Maggie Chapman
No—that is really helpful, thank you. The point on collaboration is well made, and we have heard it repeatedly over the past few weeks. One of the challenges is that, as some of you have indicated, you are forced into positions of competition, almost, because of funding constraints. We recognise that and, as a committee, we will see what we can suggest about it.
Bill, you were nodding as Jenny Miller was talking. Do you want to say a little more about the support that your organisation provides and how it navigates the gaps, the challenges and the barriers that you come across?
