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 437 contributions
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 May 2024
Carol Mochan
I absolutely accept Rachael Hamilton’s point. We have gone back and forward with people who consulted with the committee. I accept the member’s position, but we have to decide on the matter. At this stage, we have decided that we would be content with 200m.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 May 2024
Carol Mochan
I will briefly set out Scottish Labour’s position on this grouping. We believe that Gillian Mackay has engaged right across the parties and we thank her for listening to our views. My remarks today clarify our position on her amendments. In particular, we believe that amendment 34 is good and will support it.
It has been helpful to hear Mr Cole-Hamilton speak about his amendments, because we were a bit unclear about the idea of removing section 8. We did not support that amendment all, as we thought that it was unreasonable, but it will be useful to hear the minister’s response.
We thank everybody for contributing to the discussion on the section.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 May 2024
Carol Mochan
I thank the minister for her time and discussion on this area. Scottish Labour has taken a great deal of time to go over it because, as both Sandesh Gulhane and Jeremy Balfour have said, such a change would be significant and important. On balance, we believe that future care needs to be a part of the bill, because things have changed for women in this area of healthcare and it is important that, should further change be needed, it can be done in a timeous manner. We therefore believe that the bill, as it is set out, with the amendments from the Government, would be sufficient to balance human rights with the restrictions that any additional zones might add, and that it would be fair to allow the minister to do that. We therefore support the minister’s amendments.
However, we will vote against amendments 37 and 38 because we believe that it is better for the minister to be able to act on those things and that the bill has a good balance.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 May 2024
Carol Mochan
I want to put on record a few points about the proposed reporting and review section, which, as other members have indicated, will be so important in understanding the way in which the bill functions in our communities. We have looked carefully at all the amendments in this group, and we absolutely understand why they have been lodged. I am very heartened by the discussion that has just taken place. Our intention had been to support Gillian Mackay’s amendment 39, but to ask the Government to work with other members on the proposed new section.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 May 2024
Carol Mochan
The committee took a lot of evidence on section 5 and, on balance, it was important that we did so. Scottish Labour has considered all the points and wants to try to get the balance of human rights correct. We support the debate this morning.
I will mention, in particular, amendments 17, 18 and 20, in the name of Sandesh Gulhane, which we feel are not necessary and a bit unclear. I appreciate the member’s comments this morning, which have been helpful in clarifying his intention, but we will not support his amendments.
I appreciate Jeremy Balfour’s contribution on the amendments in his name, as we have been considering all those points. We are glad that amendment 21 is a probing amendment—and it was helpful, Mr Balfour, that you clarified that particular point. We have considered again and again the matter that amendment 22 relates to; the member is absolutely right that we need to get that particular issue right, and we hope that he will consider working with the Government on it as we go towards stage 3.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 May 2024
Carol Mochan
That is helpful—thank you. Scottish Labour would be prepared to speak to you about it, as we go into stage 3.
We will not support amendment 23. We believe that flexibility is required, because we are not always sure of the opening and closing times of healthcare services and when people might be coming out of them. As the amendment would be restrictive, we do not want it to be included.
We believe that not mentioning behaviours is the best way to approach the bill as set out. Therefore, we will not support amendment 24.
On Rachael Hamilton’s amendment 56 and Meghan Gallacher’s amendment 57, I appreciate the members’ contributions with regard to filming, because we are sympathetic to that issue. However, although we absolutely understand the motives for the amendments, we have some concerns that they fall into the area of placing behaviours in the bill. We hope that they will consider working together on this as we move towards stage 3, but, although we are keeping the issue under consideration, we will not be supporting these amendments at this stage.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 28 May 2024
Carol Mochan
Scottish Labour’s position is that amendment 42 is a reasonable amendment, but we are not sure that it is particularly necessary to include it in that part of the bill, as the bill’s intention is evident throughout.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 21 May 2024
Carol Mochan
I thank the cabinet secretary for the information on this important issue. I am aware that one of the key issues in relation to AHPs is the link with universities and the provision of a flexible model. Have you had any discussion with universities or other portfolio holders that might help with that?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Carol Mochan
Thank you. That is one of the issues that we need to get right for both clinicians and young people.
I wonder if you could you give us a little information. One thing that has interested us is people presenting at the clinics who are same-sex attracted and how we make sure that there is that space for those young people. You mentioned a case earlier in which a person reflected on what had happened to them in that regard. If I put that issue in the context of a conversion therapy bill, do you think that we need to take that apart and look at having a bill that deals with conversion therapy in relation to same-sex attraction and trans identity? Should we consider doing that?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 7 May 2024
Carol Mochan
That is really helpful. Thank you very much.