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: 18 May 2022
Fulton MacGregor
I know that we are short of time, but I think that Joanne Smith wants to come in.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Fulton MacGregor
What does the analysis point to or indicate? Even though, as you said, it is not very detailed, has the force come to any conclusions on that analysis?
10:30Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Over time, have you noticed a marked increase in those absences?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Convener, I was nearly finished, but that last answer leads me to another question, because that is a really good point. I imagine that you and your officers regularly deal with what the rest of us would consider really traumatic experiences. Has there been an increase in those really traumatic experiences? We have heard about the increase in contact from members of the public in relation to mental health issues, and I think that we are going to hear later about some quite disturbing increases in issues that affect children. Is that also on the increase?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Thank you for that. There are plenty of issues there for the committee and the Government to consider.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Fulton MacGregor
I apologise—I know that it is a difficult question in a very sensitive area. With regard to the instances that have been described, I take the opportunity to pass on my condolences to all the witnesses, who have obviously experienced the loss of friends and colleagues in the service.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Fulton MacGregor
It is helpful to get that on the record, because it allows us to clearly say that we have evidence of an overall increase. Katy Clark and Collette Stevenson will agree that that is what the agencies that are represented on the cross-party group that I chair are reporting. They feel that we are on the precipice of another pandemic in the coming period.
My substantive question is about young people’s use of the internet and what we can do to increase safety in educational terms. I know that we have talked a wee bit about that already, but I would like to bring in some of the witnesses at the top half of the table, because the discussion has probably been more focused on those sitting at the bottom half. My question, which is for Alison Penman, is: what more can we do to make young people safe? I have three young children, but it is my 8-year-old who probably falls into the category that we are discussing. She has asked me several times for a TikTok account. There is absolutely no chance that she is getting it—I do not have an account myself; in fact, I do not understand it—but, to be realistic, I will not be able to say no for ever, whether it be for TikTok or whatever replaces it. What can we do to educate our children about this? To be frank—and I am probably not the only parent who will say this—I think that my 8-year-old is more tech savvy than I am. That worries and concerns me as a parent; it worries and concerns my peers and friends whom I speak to; and it is a concern for my constituents. Do you have any advice in that respect?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Fulton MacGregor
Thank you for that. The whole subject of children who display harmful behaviours is such an interesting one. It is an area in which society as a whole recognises that there is a victim and a perpetrator wrapped up in a serious situation. This comment would usually be for the committee’s discussion in private, but I want to put out there to the other committee members that I think that we would find that area of great interest if we were to take evidence on it.
My substantive question is about helping families to cope with the new age that we are living in. We are in it, and the internet is going to be here forever. Gina, are you able to talk about what you are doing on that?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Fulton MacGregor
I agree with you and others that the visit was very useful. I put on record my thanks to the people who gave us evidence, sometimes sharing their personal stories, which was very helpful.
We heard that a national throughcare service is in place—Wise Group is already providing it—and we were asked to take that into account as we proceed with the bill. That was an interesting point that I wanted to highlight.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 May 2022
Fulton MacGregor
I am sorry to keep pressing you on this, because I know that it is a very difficult and sensitive area, and I appreciate the responses that you are giving. We are getting a clear indication from you that anxiety and depression have increased. We would not expect you to do so when they are suffering but, when the time is right, are you going back and asking those officers who are off with anxiety and depression to indicate any work-related pressures that they felt led to that? Do you try to pull that information together?