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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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 January 2025
Paul Sweeney
The next item on our agenda is to take evidence from two panels of witnesses as part of our scrutiny of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill at stage 1. By virtue of rule 12.2.3(a), Liam McArthur is attending as the member in charge of the bill and I welcome him to the meeting.
We begin today’s scrutiny of the bill by taking evidence from organisations that are in support of the bill. I welcome to the committee Dr Gillian MacDougall, who is a trustee of Friends at the End; Professor Gareth Morgan, who is convener of the Scottish Christian Forum on Assisted Dying; Fraser Sutherland, who is chief executive officer of the Humanist Society Scotland; and Alyson Thomson, who is director of Dignity in Dying Scotland. We move straight to questions.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 January 2025
Paul Sweeney
Would panel members support the inclusion of additional safeguards for younger people, such as a requirement to undergo a specialist paediatric psychiatric assessment?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 January 2025
Paul Sweeney
Thank you, minister, for attending. We will now move on to agenda item 2. You are, of course, welcome to leave at this point or you can stay to watch the rest of the proceedings.
Under this agenda item we will formally consider, in the light of the evidence that we have just heard, the type 1 consent notification sent by the Scottish Government relating to the Food and Feed (Regulated Products) (Amendment, Revocation, Consequential and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025.
If members are content for consent to be given, the committee will write to the Scottish Government accordingly. If that is the agreed approach, we will have the opportunity in the letter to raise any related questions or concerns or to ask to be kept up to date on relevant developments. However, if members of the committee are not content with the proposal, the committee may choose to make one of the three recommendations that are outlined in paragraph 13 of the clerk’s note.
I invite comments from members of the committee in the light of the evidence that we have just heard.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 January 2025
Paul Sweeney
Thank you.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 21 January 2025
Paul Sweeney
Good morning, and welcome to the second meeting of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee in 2025. Unfortunately, the convener is unable to attend today’s meeting in person and will be joining us online. As deputy convener, I will convene the meeting in her absence. I have received no apologies for the meeting.
Our first agenda item is on United Kingdom subordinate legislation. We will take evidence on a consent notification on the Food and Feed (Regulated Products) (Amendment, Revocation, Consequential and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025. This is a UK statutory instrument on which the UK Government is seeking the Scottish Government’s consent to legislate in areas of devolved competence. The committee’s role is to decide whether it agrees with the Scottish Government’s proposal to consent to the UK Government making the regulations within devolved competence and in the manner that the UK Government has indicated to the Scottish Government.
At our previous meeting, we considered the notification and agreed to invite the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health to give evidence today. We have until tomorrow, 22 January, to respond to the Scottish Government’s notification, which we will do immediately after this morning’s evidence session. I therefore invite members to debate and decide how they wish to respond in a letter to the Scottish Government.
I welcome to the committee Jenni Minto, the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health; Georgina Finch, who is a senior policy adviser at Food Standards Scotland; Neel Mojee, who is a lawyer for the Scottish Government; and Greig Walker, who is project lead on constitution and UK relations at the Scottish Government. I thank you for joining us.
Before we move on to questions, minister, I believe that you would like to make a brief opening statement.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 January 2025
Paul Sweeney
Has anyone considered how a narrow definition would work in relation to existing social security definitions, or the impact that that might have on access to benefits at the end of life?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 January 2025
Paul Sweeney
I thank the witnesses for attending the committee and for answering our questions so fully. Our next meeting will be a week today, when we will continue our stage 1 scrutiny of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill with evidence on law enforcement considerations, followed by an evidence-taking session with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care.
That concludes the public part of our meeting.
12:15 Meeting continued in private until 12:34.Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 21 January 2025
Paul Sweeney
I go back to a point that was raised earlier on autonomy. Do the witnesses recognise that, for some individuals, there might be some therapeutic value and comfort in having the option of assisted dying available, even though they might ultimately not use it? Simply having the option available to them as a safeguard against their fear of pain and the progression of their condition might well provide them with some degree of comfort. Is that something that you might want to consider or reflect on?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 January 2025
Paul Sweeney
That is interesting. Do other witnesses have comments on the current drafting of that section of the bill?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 January 2025
Paul Sweeney
That is an interesting question. Ms Cahill, do you have any points to add?
