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 1203 contributions
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Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 June 2024
Sharon Dowey
What information was sent out yesterday? Last week, I spoke to a few stakeholders, who did not know what was happening. This week, the committee received a letter from Victim Support Scotland, which said that, as of yesterday, it still did not have the information that would be available in the information-sharing agreement. Why was it only sent out yesterday? That does not give us much time to have a look at it and raise any issues while we have you here today.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 June 2024
Sharon Dowey
Good morning. I will start with a question for Ms Medhurst. Do you feel that the Scottish Prison Service is prepared for the early release of prisoners? When did conversations with the Scottish Government about it start?
09:45Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 June 2024
Sharon Dowey
On what Rona Mackay said, I totally agree that prison officers do an excellent job and that we need to be concerned for their safety and that of the people in the prisons—we definitely need to look at that. However, this is being presented as an extraordinary measure even though the prospect of emergency release has been present for some time, so it is not really an emergency. There is still a lot more that we need to look at, as I said in my questions. I quoted last week’s witnesses, who said that early release creates a “breathing space” but medium and long-term plans are needed. I would like us, as a committee, to see a lot more on what those medium and long-term plans are, to ensure that we are not back here in another few months, and to get timescales for those plans.
We received another update from Victim Support Scotland, which has also had a lot of concerns. It says in its briefing that, on Tuesday 11 June, no draft of the information sharing agreement was available. I am glad to say that that has now been given out, but prior planning should have meant that Victim Support Scotland and other stakeholders got that a lot earlier. Again, I am speaking to people on the ground who are saying that there was no information available to them. I do not know whether the plans and discussions were happening at a higher level, but the information was not getting down to people on the ground.
We have now heard that there is an actual list of prisoners who could be eligible for early release. Again, however, it might have been prudent to have shared that with some of those organisations so that they could get information together and have more time to prepare for any vetoes. Victim Support Scotland said that it is concerned about the emergency release process and that the governor will have a veto but that it is unclear how informed the process will be. One of the questions that I did not manage to ask in the evidence session earlier today was about the governor’s veto. The veto is to prevent the release of an otherwise eligible prisoner if the governor thinks that they would, if they were released, pose an immediate risk to a specified individual or group of individuals.
Last week, I asked Paula Arnold about the governor’s veto. She said:
“during the last early release, I signed off on only two governor’s vetoes, I think”.
That was that due to concerns outwith criminal justice, such as concerns about housing and so on. She said:
“at that point in time, without the pre-planning that should be in place, the person was not suitable for release so quickly. For example, there might not have been an involvement with third sector or throughcare services, or somewhere for that person to live”.—[Official Report, Criminal Justice Committee, 5 June 2024; c 44.]
I am concerned about whether governors are still allowed to use a veto for those reasons or whether they can use it only if the person would cause an immediate risk to a specified individual or group. Again, it is the reoffending aspect that I am concerned about.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 June 2024
Sharon Dowey
Okay. There are a few other things, but I will leave it there.
Criminal Justice Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 12 June 2024
Sharon Dowey
One of my other concerns is planning and preparation, which are on-going. Last week, the emergency release was described as a “breathing space”, but medium and long-term plans are needed. When asked about the future plans last week and what discussions were on-going with the Scottish Government, Phil Fairlie of the Prison Officers Association Scotland said:
“that is not being shared with us. It is not a conversation that we are involved in. The conversation might be going on elsewhere but not with us.”—[Official Report, Criminal Justice Committee, 5 June 2024; c 46.]
Cabinet secretary, you mentioned in your opening statement changing needs and the ageing prison population. We have also heard about the need for halfway houses, supervised bail hostels, GPS monitoring, secure care homes and mental health facilities. However, when asked about that, Wendy Sinclair-Gieben, who is HM chief inspector of prisons, said:
“I would have to echo Phil Fairlie’s comments and say that, if the Scottish Government is taking action on those things, I am not aware of it.”
She went on to say that she had been raising these issues for some time, but that
“I have not seen any written plans or any action planning”.—[Official Report, Criminal Justice Committee, 5 June 2024; c 46.]
This is just a breathing space. What are we actually doing? What conversations and actions are taking place so that we do not end up, in another six or nine months, saying that we will have another emergency release of prisoners?
Criminal Justice Committee
Emergency Release of Prisoners and Other Key Challenges in Scotland’s Prisons
Meeting date: 5 June 2024
Sharon Dowey
I am just aware that we already have a presumption against short sentences and in favour of bail being granted rather than someone being held on remand, and I am thinking about the consequences of that, and about a victim knowing that the prisoner is going to get out of prison anything from a month to six months early. It might be better if the court could say that the person should be subject to electronic monitoring or given a community payback order rather than just being released without any other penalty.
Criminal Justice Committee
Emergency Release of Prisoners and Other Key Challenges in Scotland’s Prisons
Meeting date: 5 June 2024
Sharon Dowey
The cabinet secretary’s letter says that the process would be used
“if they think that they would pose an immediate risk of harm to a specified individual or group of individuals if released.”
How would that information come to you?
Criminal Justice Committee
Emergency Release of Prisoners and Other Key Challenges in Scotland’s Prisons
Meeting date: 5 June 2024
Sharon Dowey
A few comments have been made about early release being a breathing space and not much more, and having medium and long-term plans has been mentioned a few times. Have those medium and long-term plans been written down, and are you in discussion with the Scottish Government on those? Do we have medium and long-term plans? Obviously, this is just a breathing space, so what are we going to do to improve the situation for the future?
Criminal Justice Committee
Emergency Release of Prisoners and Other Key Challenges in Scotland’s Prisons
Meeting date: 5 June 2024
Sharon Dowey
One thing that has been mentioned is looking at the whole system to see what we need to improve or change. We have mentioned supervised bail hostels, remand centres, what I might describe as a kind of secure care home for some of the ageing prison population, which has a lot of health needs, and perhaps a secure mental health unit for those who have severe mental health problems. Are those things just being talked about or is anybody in discussion with the Scottish Government on them? Is the Scottish Government actually taking action on those?
