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 1359 contributions
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Shona Robison
First, I agree that trans rights are human rights. What we are trying to achieve here is about recognising—and I think that this was put across strongly by the Scottish Human Rights Commission—that everybody’s human rights are all-important collectively and should not be seen as somehow in opposition to one another. That is an important point.
On the public discourse, we have already had a discussion this morning about whether there should have been more time. I take your point that you feel that there has been too much time. I think that we have probably landed somewhere in the middle. It has been well discussed and well consulted on and we have now got to the position where we can look at the detail and make decisions.
It is very difficult to change the public discourse on social media and in some sections of the mainstream media. In some places, it has perhaps become a wedge issue against a tiny number of people who are extremely vulnerable and really just want to get on with their lives, which is why the bill is important.
In terms of the public discourse going forward, once the legislation is in place, people will see that those it affects are the tiny number of people it directly affects—in other words, those who are going to obtain a gender recognition certificate that can reflect how they have been living their lives anyway. We can see that in practice in the other countries that have done this, which are growing in number—I cited Spain, which is now looking at it as well—none of the concerns, some of which were expressed in those countries as well, have come to fruition. That should give us some confidence that people may be assured by that.
Finally, as I said in earlier, I am not sure that what is in social media really reflects where public opinion is on this matter. The BBC poll that I mentioned showed that young people, who are overwhelmingly more supportive of the trans community in all the polls that are done, and women are more supportive. That is perhaps food for thought. Some of the polling that has been done might show us a different view from the one that social media would have us believe.
We will continue to do this. If there are other things that we as a Government can do to improve the public discourse, of course we will do them. If the committee has any suggestions in that regard, I am happy to look at them.
11:00Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Shona Robison
I think that, for consistency and fairness, the reflection period should be the same. From memory, I think that the children’s commissioner was probably against having a reflection period at all, but I also think that the commissioner would be quite firmly against having some differential in the reflection period.
If we agree that 16 and 17-year-olds should be able to obtain a gender recognition certificate through statutory declaration, those people should be treated as having the same maturity as everyone else has when it comes to the reflection period. Having said that, there will be the additional guidance and support structure around 16 and 17-year-olds. We think that that is the more appropriate additional support, which someone over the age of 18 might not require.
An issue of which we are mindful is people who are nearing the end of life. In those circumstances, three months could, frankly, be a long time. We are mindful of the importance for many people of their death certificate reflecting how they have lived their life. If the committee made a recommendation in that regard, I would be completely sympathetic to that.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Shona Robison
People have been able to change their sex through the 2004 act since it came in. They were already able to do that, so any prisoners we are talking about have already done that through the 2004 act, because this bill is not in place. If any of the people whom we are talking about have a GRC, they will have one through the existing 2004 legislation.
The point that I am making is that, for the Scottish Prison Service, if someone has a GRC it is not a pass for a trans woman into the female estate or for a trans man into the male estate. What matters is the risk assessment of that individual, and not just whether they pose a threat to other people but whether they are at risk themselves. You could clearly see in the case of trans men, in particular, why that might be the case, which is why 75 per cent of trans men are held in the female estate.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Shona Robison
That is really a matter for the committee, not me. How the committee operates its business and the time that you allocate for the bill is a matter for yourselves, not me.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Shona Robison
Living in an acquired gender generally means living your daily life in a gender that is different from your gender as recorded at birth. In the context of the bill, that is the gender in which a person is living when they make an application.
It is important to recognise that living in the acquired gender is an existing requirement under the 2004 act. I do not think that that causes widespread confusion among applicants currently, so we do not envisage that that will be the case with the bill.
It is important to say that the requirement is not about dressing or looking a certain way; it is about the ways in which a person might demonstrate their lived gender to others. Ultimately, interpretation is—
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Shona Robison
Yes, I can. I was just going to say that examples include consistently using titles and pronouns in line with the acquired gender; updating official documents, such as a driving licence or passport; updating utility bills or bank accounts; updating the gender marker on official documents, such as a driving licence or passport; describing themselves and being described by others, in written or other communication, in line with the acquired gender; and using a name that is associated with the acquired gender. Of course, a change of name is a personal choice and not a requirement, but it is an example.
The gender recognition panel that currently exists—it will no longer, if the bill is passed—advises in its guidance that examples might include a person having changed the gender marker on their passport and driving licence, or that their friends, family and employer know their gender.
I hope that that is—
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Shona Robison
First, it will be for the other parts of the UK to decide on their own systems, and the UK Government’s recognition of Scottish GRCs will be a matter for it to consider.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Shona Robison
There are some fundamental rights that will remain the same—rights that are enshrined under the Equality Act 2010 and apply to people whether or not they have a GRC. Those would be everyday things such as people’s rights at work and in any interactions with public bodies. Those remain the same whether someone has a GRC or not, because they are protected under the 2010 act.
I will ask Peter Hope-Jones to pick up on the specifics.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Shona Robison
I am aware that Shirley-Anne Somerville also undertook consultation and met a number of organisations. Peter Hope-Jones was closer to that process than I was, but I understand that the three-month reflection period was one of the areas that emerged from that. Peter can maybe say more about that in a second.
There has also been ample opportunity for written comments, all of which have been looked at and considered. I undertook a round of engagement once I came into the post and had got my head around the extent and detail of this complex area. I held personal meetings with organisations from both sides of the argument around the bill. One of the areas that I looked at in a lot of detail was whether the minimum age of applicants should be 18 or 16. I gave that a lot of consideration. I looked at all of the views on that and, as I said in my statement, the reforms are finely balanced because of the differing views. The commitment to annual reporting came directly out of that round of engagement with organisations, because I was being asked how we would know how many GRCs had been issued, whether there had been a spike, and what the pattern was. That was an absolutely fair point, so we agreed to put that in the annual reporting requirement.
The other area that was changed was the cost of applying. Some organisations in favour of the bill said that they thought that having a cost might be prohibitive to people, so we listened to them and we removed the cost on that basis. Those are two examples that came directly out of that round of consultation. Peter is best placed to talk about what happened before that, because obviously I was not in post then.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 28 June 2022
Shona Robison
Application for a GRC is still a very serious step to take: it is a statutory declaration, in which the person declares that they are going to live the rest of their life in that gender. The international evidence that has emerged shows that there is no evidence of changes in laws being misused by what you described as “bad-faith actors”. The evidence of the Scottish Human Rights Commission is very strong on that: it could find no evidence of the misuse of the process.
There are quite hefty penalties for misuse. As I set out in my opening remarks, someone who makes a false declaration will feel the full force of the law.