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 1412 contributions
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
That brings the session to an end. I thank the witnesses for their evidence.
10:08 Meeting suspended.Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
Welcome back.??We will now hear from our second panel on employability programmes. Expanding employability provision is a key proposal in the Scottish Government’s “Best Start, Bright Futures—Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-2026”. In the context of the current budget pressures, it is unclear what progress has been made so far and what the role of employability programmes is in the current tight job market.
I welcome our witnesses. David Stewart, regional development manager at Fedcap Scotland, and Philip Whyte, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland, join us in the room. Marion Davis, director of policy, communication and strategy at One Parent Families Scotland, and Sarah McCulley, service manager for employment and training at Falkirk Council, who is representing the Scottish Local Authorities Economic Development Group, join us remotely.
As with the previous panel, before speaking, witnesses should wait until I—or the member who is asking the question—say their name to allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn on their microphone. Anyone who wishes to come in on a question can indicate that by typing R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans. Please do not feel that you have to answer every question.
I invite members to ask questions in turn, as agreed in our pre-briefing.?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
I invite Paul O’Kane to ask some questions.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
I believe that Jackie Galbraith would like to come in.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
I will bring Paul O’Kane back in, but we have run over our time, so please be as clear and concise as possible.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
Good morning, and welcome to the 15th meeting in 2023 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. We have received apologies from Miles Briggs.
Our first item of business is a decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take agenda items 3 and 4 in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
Our next agenda item is an evidence-taking session to inform our inquiry into addressing child poverty through parental employment. The inquiry is looking at how the Scottish Government is working with local authorities, employers and other partners at a local level to tackle child poverty through improving employability.
This will be our second panel on the theme of affordable and flexible childcare, with the focus of this session on service delivery. I welcome to the meeting Susan McGhee, chief executive of Flexible Childcare Services Scotland, and Rami Okasha, chief executive of Children’s Hospices Across Scotland, both of whom are joining us in the committee room. We are also joined remotely by Kirsty Ramage, project leader at the Bellsbank Project, and Beverley Isdale, chief executive of First 4 Kids. Good morning to the witnesses and thank you for joining us.
Before we start, I want to mention a few points about the format of the meeting. We have allocated roughly an hour and 15 minutes for questions. I should say to the virtual witnesses and members that, before speaking, they should wait until I—or the member who is asking the question—say their name to give our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn their microphone on. Anyone who wishes to come in on a question can indicate as much with an R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans.
Please do not feel that you have to answer every question. If you have nothing new to add to what has been said by others, that is okay. We have a lot to cover this morning, so I ask everyone to keep their questions, answers and follow-up questions tight. Colleagues who are in the room should indicate to me or the clerk if they wish to come in or to ask a supplementary question. Members who are joining us online should use the chat box or WhatsApp to do so.
As agreed at our pre-briefing, I will invite members to ask questions in turn. For our first theme, which is flexible childcare, I call James Dornan, who is joining us remotely.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
Has Susan McGhee come across that?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
Yes.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Collette Stevenson
I am sorry, Kirsty—you are breaking up again. Have you tried switching your camera off?