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 888 contributions
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 14 December 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Good afternoon to the witnesses, and thank you for your evidence so far. I was going to ask the same question that Russell Findlay did, but I will instead ask a supplementary. How does the fact that the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill and the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill will go through at the same time impact planning? We have heard that recommendations and decisions have yet to be made about whether justice social work will be part of the national care service. I do not know whether you listened to the earlier panel of witnesses and to some of the questions that I and others asked. That panel talked about the impact on social work staff and how planning could be done on that. How does the situation impact on planning? Is planning for the social work service aspect of the bill based on the current set-up, or is there a parallel plan in case the service goes over to the national care service, which would, obviously, make for a more uniform approach across the country?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 14 December 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Thanks.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 14 December 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Good morning to committee colleagues and the panel. I have a question on the back of the convener’s question and Gillian Booth’s answer. It is about the bill’s potential impact on social workers and their teams. Has Gillian or any other panel member thought about what that impact might be? Criminal justice social work teams tend to be relatively small. Would it take an increase in numbers to fulfil the principles of the bill? Do you think that the functions would be carried out by typical criminal justice social work teams, or do you see them being done more—as you mentioned—by specific bail supervision teams? Gillian, you may be able to answer only for South Lanarkshire Council, but you may have thoughts on how local authorities across the country might set up.
Convener, I should probably refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests. I was previously a registered social worker with the Scottish Social Services Council. Given that Gillian is the manager of the local authority that I previously worked for, although it was before Gillian’s time, that is more relevant today.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 14 December 2022
Fulton MacGregor
My supplementary question is in the same area. Gillian, you are right to say that, if the bill is passed, the assessments will be a hugely time-consuming and important task. Are there discussions at an advanced stage on how many more workers will be required, whether they will be required in specific teams and where those resources might be pulled from? Or, as a result of the bill’s being passed, would you expect the Scottish Government to provide more funding so that it does not have to come from other parts of the social work service? I am sorry that that is a very broad question. I understand the time constraints.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 14 December 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Convener, is it okay if I ask a supplementary question?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2022
Fulton MacGregor
I am happy with that.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2022
Fulton MacGregor
A range of civil measures have been proposed, including outreach and education programmes, survivor support measures and a commission to undertake investigations. Could any of the measures be put in place without the need for legislative change?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Good morning, Sandra, and thanks for your presentation on the history of Makaton. I found it very interesting and helpful. You apologised to the committee a couple of times during your presentation, but there is absolutely no need to apologise. You gave a very clear and concise history, and I thank you for that.
My questions follow on from the convener’s question about how Makaton fits into the legal system. You have spoken a wee bit about the police. Do you have any information—I would not expect you to have data—on how often Makaton is used in court settings, be they civil or criminal? Is that something that you have heard about? Have people asked for Makaton to be used in court settings? If so, is it made available to them?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2022
Fulton MacGregor
It does, thank you.
Have you come across any examples of an individual—perhaps an advocate—having requested that Makaton be used during court proceedings, where that has not been provided for? We may need to ask the Government or someone who would keep records about that.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 13 December 2022
Fulton MacGregor
I could not agree more with what you have said. That shows the importance of the petition.