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 1164 contributions
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Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Emergency Cardiac Care
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
David Torrance
Good morning. Petition PE2067 highlighted issues around public awareness and education in relation to cardiac arrest, sudden cardiac death and inherited cardiac conditions. How can the public’s understanding and awareness of cardiac emergency be improved? Who is going to go first?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
David Torrance
In light of that information, I wonder whether the committee would consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the changes that the petitioner asked for have been considered and voted on by the Scottish Parliament as part of the recently passed Housing (Scotland) Bill.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
David Torrance
The committee should consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that a ban on single-use vapes is now in force.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
David Torrance
Will the committee consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Scottish Government’s position is that the core ask of the petition is an operational matter for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Police Scotland, because pre-conviction warrants should normally be obtained and executed only in the absence of an immediate alternative and because HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland are currently conducting a joint inspection of the citation process in Scotland with a view to recommending improvements.
In closing the petition, the committee highlights to the petitioner the option to submit a new petition during the next parliamentary session, should they consider that there has not been sufficient progress on the matter.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Emergency Cardiac Care
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
David Torrance
I have seen how PADmap works.
The majority of defibrillators are bought by community organisations, youth groups and so on, but, as you said, they are often not in the right place. How can we ensure that such organisations know where defibrillators should be? How can we advertise, when defibrillators are bought, where they should be placed?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
New Petitions
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
David Torrance
I wonder whether the committee would consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Scottish Government has not indicated that it will provide specific funding for the provision of mobility equipment, that it is up to individual local authorities to allocate funding to address local needs and priorities, and that the committee has limited time remaining this session to progress the issues raised in the petition.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
David Torrance
In the light of the response from the Scottish Government and the actions that it is taking, will the committee consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Scottish Government intends to introduce a human rights bill in the next parliamentary session, which will give domestic legal effect to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities? In addition, as the convener said, work on the mental health and capacity reform programme has begun, with the majority of actions being progressed or completed, and the adults with incapacity expert working group meets monthly and is taking forward detailed development work to modernise existing legislation.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
New Petitions
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
David Torrance
Would the committee consider closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Scottish Government considered whether the legislation should be amended to include sanctions or penalties against organisations that fail to comply with the law and concluded that legislation is already in place to hold organisations to account, and that it will consider strengthening the powers and responsibilities of the Mental Welfare Commission within the context of a wider long-term reform to mental health law?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
Continued Petitions
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
David Torrance
Considering the cabinet secretary’s response, I suggest that we close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Public Audit Committee recently undertook scrutiny of additional support for learning in the context of the Auditor General for Scotland’s report. We have explored the issue that is raised in the petition, and there is limited time remaining in the current session of Parliament to progress the issues further. In closing the petition, we could suggest to the petitioner that she raises the issues with one of her local MSPs and advise her that a new petition could be submitted in the next parliamentary session.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee [Draft]
New Petitions
Meeting date: 29 October 2025
David Torrance
In the light of your comments, I suggest that we close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government is currently undertaking work with COSLA and the Institute for Fiscal Studies that will inform potential council tax reform proposals in the next parliamentary session.
