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 1237 contributions
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Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I want to look at inequalities too, focusing specifically on women and girls from ethnic minority backgrounds, and south Asian backgrounds in particular. It is quite difficult for people from south Asian backgrounds to progress in sport and to play a lot of sport, but it is particularly difficult for girls.
I come back to Eilidh Paterson. What part might role models have to play in that regard? Do you have any ideas on how to increase participation among girls who come from south Asian backgrounds?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I do, but before I start, I have another point to make. We were just talking about urinary incontinence. I would say to any woman who has urinary incontinence, “Please see your GP.” There is a lot that we can do, from bladder training to medications, but it could be a sign of something more serious, so they should not ignore it.
I come back to the issue of social media. My question is for Eilidh Paterson. What effect do you think social media have on young girls? Previously, when women’s football was taking place, people were posting disparaging videos. After the women’s European championship, however, they have all disappeared and women’s football has become quite a big thing. Nevertheless, what effect does such social media activity have?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (NHS Golden Jubilee National Hospital, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland)
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I was struck by what Pamela Dudek said about culture, because there is a big report that suggests that culture is not what it should be in NHS Highland. Fiona Hogg, the head of people and culture, has left. In January, there was a report in The Spectator titled “The NHS is drowning in paperwork”, which talked specifically about the Highlands, as did a BBC article from 14 February titled “Vulnerable patient died ‘due to lack of nursing staff’”. Those are all examples of where culture is poor, because, clearly, issues were not properly escalated. There are plenty of other examples that I do not have time to go into. From what you have said, it does not seem as though you have got on top of the culture in NHS Highland. What specific steps are you taking to ensure that the culture is where it should be?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
Finally, I will go to Kirsty Garrett. What do you have in place to promote the participation of women from ethnic backgrounds?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders and NHS Forth Valley)
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
Thank you, convener. I declare an interest, having worked in NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Forth Valley.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders and NHS Forth Valley)
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I am not talking about specialist treatment; we all accept that patients have to travel for really specialist treatment. I am talking about ASA 1 and 2 patients who need, for example, a hip or knee operation. You are saying that, when the treatment centre is online, you will expect such people to go not to the Highlands but to the Golden Jubilee.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders and NHS Forth Valley)
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
So you will need a further conversation to find out about things such as the extra costs that might be associated with a 23-hour in-patient stay and other resources that you might need to put into a patient going to the Golden Jubilee or other treatment centres.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders and NHS Forth Valley)
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I am just trying to ascertain the answer to the question, which was about the comparison with pre-pandemic levels. It is not about the 52-week wait.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Scrutiny of NHS Boards (NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders and NHS Forth Valley)
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I will start with Ralph Roberts. Does NHS Borders expect to be able to access the treatment centre in Inverness, in the Highlands?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Female Participation in Sport and Physical Activity
Meeting date: 21 March 2023
Dr Sandesh Gulhane
I want to ask specifically about the use of mobile phones, which was raised earlier. Now that more and more people are taking videos in the gym—and, I imagine, other places—and then posting them online, do you have a specific social media policy in your spaces? That sort of thing can make people feel very uncomfortable. That question is directly for Kirsty Garrett and Patrick Murphy—and, obviously, anyone else who wants to come in.
