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 700 contributions
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Patrick Harvie
If someone makes an offer on social media, perhaps even within a friendship group, to provide procedures outwith permitted premises, is there anything in the bill, or under the current law, that will allow enforcement action to be taken?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Patrick Harvie
If anything further could be provided in writing before the bill progresses, that would be helpful.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Patrick Harvie
Do you expect to explore that approach in relation to non-surgical procedures?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Patrick Harvie
Tobacco is an interesting comparison, because we require information to be provided not simply in text form but through images that are sometimes deliberately shocking.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Patrick Harvie
I just want to follow up on the enforcement theme. The bill would create an offence of providing procedures outwith permitted premises, but it does not include an offence of offering those procedures in those circumstances. Are there any existing offences that would come into play in relation to offering procedures in that way and which could play a role in enforcement? The powers to inspect premises, including powers of entry, come into play where there is a reasonable belief that the offence of carrying out the procedure has been, or is being, committed. Is there another way of allowing enforcement authorities to exercise that power of entry where procedures are being offered, or where the offer to make them available can be demonstrated, but there is no evidence that a procedure has actually happened?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Patrick Harvie
Good morning. I just want to follow up on the questions about public awareness and perhaps draw out a little more the Government’s attitude to the balance between the public sector’s responsibility to provide public awareness information and providers’ responsibility to provide information.
When we talk about other products on sale that have some health harms, we do not simply say that there is a public health awareness campaign and we do not simply say that providers have to give information—we say both things. I am not quite clear whether the Scottish Government is saying that it wants to regulate the information on risks that providers of such procedures have to make available. I recognise that advertising is reserved, but regulating the provision of information about risks is surely a public health matter and therefore devolved.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 11 December 2025
Patrick Harvie
If we accept—and I hope that I am right about this—that we can continue to rely on the principle that Scotland has the right to decide, or that the people of Scotland have the right to do so, we are still left in the situation where, although we have the right to decide, we may not exercise it. That is the quandary that we find ourselves in.
I want to ask about an issue that I have explored with previous panels—to a mixed reaction, I have to say. If the Scottish Parliament’s ability to make a decision is not accepted and the UK Parliament or Government is unwilling to make a decision, is there some other way in which the will of the people of Scotland—not necessarily to decide yes or no to independence, but to make it clear that they are ready to decide on the question of independence—can be expressed, whether through some formal deliberative or participative mechanism or in some informal way that is not directed by, or under the control of, formal political processes? Do any of you see any potential in that space for some form of expression of the will, or the readiness, of the people of Scotland, other than through decisions in one Parliament that is being told that it cannot decide and another Parliament that is unwilling to decide?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 11 December 2025
Patrick Harvie
I am unclear about Jamie Halcro Johnston’s thinking with regard to street traders being moved from one site to another, and how we can disaggregate the losses from the benefits and develop a compensation scheme that could not be taken advantage of pretty ruthlessly.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 11 December 2025
Patrick Harvie
It is perhaps a bit out of character for me to say that an amendment in Stephen Kerr’s name seems reasonable but, on first reading, I did not see anything in amendment 8 that appeared particularly harmful. However, having thought about it a little more, the rights that it sets out could, in some circumstances, be problematic. For example, the right to observe searches might cause unnecessary disputes in situations in which an individual is being disruptive or posing a threat to others around them. The minister referred to the point about reporting entry to Glasgow City Council, and I am a bit worried that that would raise expectations that the council would always have the ability to do something about that. I am not entirely clear how that would be helpful, so I do not feel that amendment 8 should be supported.
For the reasons that the minister set out, I have problems with amendment 9 because of the risk of the opportunity that could be taken to destroy evidence.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 11 December 2025
Patrick Harvie
I can understand why Jamie Halcro Johnston thinks that, in specific instances where traders have made a loss, that loss might be compensated, but I point out that there will also be significant circumstances in which traders gain additional opportunities. They might well be in other places, but there will be opportunities that would not have been there if the tournament had not been happening. Can he say, either in an intervention now or in his closing comments, whether it is his view that the Government ought to try to establish a situation in which there are no losses and no benefits—and if so, tell us how he intends to recoup the additional benefits that will be gained—or is he trying to suggest that losses should be compensated and benefits pocketed?