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 972 contributions
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2022
David Torrance
Many of the people I represent are in poverty, but they are in work. I have a question for Sharon Wright. What do we need to do to change employment law? A lot of people are on zero-hours contracts, for example, which is forcing them into poverty and they are stuck, because they cannot then go on to benefits.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2022
David Torrance
The third sector is very successful in reaching families, individuals and communities—in many cases, it is far better than Government agencies. How has the Covid pandemic affected the third sector in relation to volunteers? The sector relies heavily on them and I know that, with two of the organisations that I have been involved in, the volunteers have not returned in the same numbers. I will ask Richard Meade about that first.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
David Torrance
There are very strict criteria at Shouldice hospital, especially on patient weight loss. In fact, Dr Spencer Netto told the committee that some of its patients have to lose between 50 and 100 pounds before the hospital will even see them before going ahead with a natural repair. Could such criteria be brought into play here? Would it be acceptable to do so?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
David Torrance
Are the skills in natural tissue hernia repair techniques being lost in Scotland in favour of teaching surgeons mesh repairs? Could more surgeons in Scotland be receiving training in natural tissue methods?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
David Torrance
Again, I think that what the petition calls for has been achieved. Therefore, I would like us to close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the terms of reference for the Covid-19 inquiry have now been published and will include consideration of the provision of education and certification during the pandemic.
In closing the petition, we might wish to draw the attention of the Education, Children and Young People Committee to the issues that have been raised.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
David Torrance
What do you think are the recurrent issues that impact on recruitment of health and social care staff in rural areas?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
David Torrance
I think that this issue has been well investigated by the committee over two parliamentary sessions. We have taken evidence from everyone we needed to hear from. In our most recent evidence session, we got assurances that the proposal would not go ahead for five years. I do not think that we can take the issue any further—how many of us will be here in five years’ time?
I believe that what the petition originally called for has been addressed. I am therefore happy for us to close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the issues that were raised by the petitioner now appear to have been resolved.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
David Torrance
Considering the position of COSLA and the fact that the Scottish Government has no plans to review the processes, I think that we have no option but to close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
David Torrance
Good morning. In his evidence, Dr Spencer Netto highlighted how successful Shouldice hospital had been with natural tissue repairs, which have resulted in a low recurrence of hernias. How do pre-operative preparation and post-operative care for hernia repair surgery in Scotland differ from the steps undertaken in that hospital?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2022
David Torrance
The example of Shouldice hospital demonstrates the success of a specialised hernia repair unit. Would it be possible to have such a centre in Scotland, taking into account the criteria that would need to be met in order to have such a success rate?