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
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 22 June 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Thank you for explaining that, senator. My colleague Pam Gosal will ask a wee bit more about the 16 to 18 part.
On the proposal to have no requirement to live in the acquired gender for a given time or to have a period of reflection, is there any anecdotal evidence that that has been a difficulty? From what you have said to my colleagues, I understand that there is an issue with data collection in Ireland, which you have explained well. In the seven years since the act was passed, have you picked up on any information about the absence of such a requirement? Has it been called for, for example?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 22 June 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Good afternoon, senator. I have really enjoyed the session so far.
I want to ask about some specific provisions in the bill that we are considering. I will start with the requirement to live in the acquired gender for three months and the three-month reflection period. I am aware that the Irish act did not include such time periods. Was there any discussion about time periods, either before or after? Where did those discussions lead to? Was that aspect never even on the table?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 22 June 2022
Fulton MacGregor
I agree with you, convener. I hear where Jamie is coming from, and, in principle, I do not object to that, but it might muddy the waters a bit, especially as we go into recess, if we were to write to both of them and we ask Police Scotland to respond to that letter. I would prefer to compromise by writing to Police Scotland just now—we will be in recess when it responds—and leave it to your discretion whether we then write to the SPA. You can bear in mind that members have requested that. If we write to both just now, we might find that Police Scotland then wants to respond to other things in the second letter from the SPA.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 22 June 2022
Fulton MacGregor
I agree with all the points that have been made. I agree with the first few members who spoke about the difficulties that Police Scotland clearly faces, and with Katy Clark when she outlined what the committee’s role could be in the matter. There are processes such as pay negotiations to go through, which I know are happening.
Pauline McNeill touched on this, but I found one of the things that Calum Steele said in his letter quite strong. We need to get to the bottom of it and understand what it is. I will read it out. He says:
“It is also noteworthy that palpable anger remains across the PSoS as to how police officers were treated by Government, the Service, and the SPA during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic.”
We need to try to understand what that refers to. Pauline McNeill raised the issue of vaccinations. Is the anger that Calum Steele mentioned just about that or were other things going on? We need to tease out what that means. The committee could have a role in trying to understand that and give advice about how the situation could be improved. I found that to be quite a strong statement.
10:15Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Dr Dunne, do you have any thoughts on the matter?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2022
Fulton MacGregor
My apologies to the convener and to all present for being late today. I was impacted by the rail strikes, as I am sure that the convener has already reflected.
I will ask questions around the provisions in the bill in relation to the three-month period for reflection and the three-month period for living in the “acquired gender”, as it is referred to. I apologise at the outset if any of the panellists have already covered those areas. Although I had access to the session remotely, witnesses will understand that there were certain periods during what was quite a lengthy journey when it was not possible to pay quite as much attention.
Does Barbara Bolton have any thoughts on the provision around living in the acquired gender for three months? We have heard widespread criticism of it from—if you like—both sides of the argument. Do you have any thoughts on where the committee might want to take that particular provision in the bill?
12:00Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2022
Fulton MacGregor
I know that the convener has said that we are tight for time, but I have one final question. Do you have any thoughts on the term “acquired gender”, about which, as you will have heard, there has been quite a lot of discussion in previous evidence sessions?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Thank you for that. I heard your earlier comment, but it is particularly important to get on record the concerns that you laid out. Before going to Victor Madrigal-Borloz, I was going to ask you about the three-month reflection period as well. I was also going to give Ian Duddy and Cathy Asante a chance to come in, but if you are best placed to talk about the three-month reflection period, that is fine.
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Thank you very much. Victor, do you have any comments on the three-month reflection period or the current requirement in the bill to live in one’s acquired gender for three months?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Good afternoon, and thank you for your input so far.
I want to ask the panel the questions that I asked the previous panel, which is the same line of questioning that I have pursued in previous weeks. If you managed to watch any of the session with the previous panel, you will know that I am going to ask about the provisions in the bill on living in the “acquired gender”, as it is termed, for three months and the three-month reflection period. Do you have any views on the requirement that an applicant must live in the acquired gender for three months prior to submitting an application? Do you have any views on the term “acquired gender”? We have heard quite widespread criticism of that provision.