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 1153 contributions
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 26 March 2024
Emma Harper
I have written notes based on what we have received in evidence, and I reiterate the intention behind the minimum unit pricing policy. I will restate some of the content of the correspondence that the committee received from the Association of Directors of Public Health north-east on 20 March. ADPH north-east said:
“As partners based in the North East of England—the region which suffers from the worst alcohol harms in England”,
the public health directors there
“have watched the positive impact of MUP in Scotland with huge interest and admiration. At a time when alcohol deaths in England and especially here in the North East are at an all-time high,”
ADPH north-east is asking for
“similarly proactive and enlightened public health policies to reduce alcohol harm and protect the most vulnerable in our communities.”
The directors of public health in the north-east of England
“are hugely supportive of Scottish Ministers’ proposal to continue and uprate MUP and agree with the level of at least 65 pence per unit.”
According to ADPH north-east,
“The evidence is clear that the policy has achieved its aim of reducing alcohol-related harm by both reducing population consumption and by targeting the consumption of people drinking at higher levels. It has also contributed to reducing alcohol-related health inequalities.”
It also says that
“The evidence from Scotland is clear—MUP works by targeting the cheapest, most harmful alcohol and we hope that the Scottish Government will see fit to continue and uprate MUP, as part of its enlightened evidence-based approach to public health.”
In addition, we received a letter that has been signed by more than 80 medical faith organisations and charities, calling for cross-party support to continue MUP. As I flicked through the letter, I noted their comment that the policy has meant that
“an estimated 156 families each year ... have been spared the loss of a loved one. Alcohol can have a serious impact at every stage of life, with the impact in pregnancy having a lifelong effect on the child. Hospital admissions are down by an estimated 4.1%, reducing the pressure on our NHS.”
I will read the final sentence from that letter, which I will tweak a wee bit to highlight that I agree with it. It says that
“Now that it has been seen to work,”
those organisations—and I—support
“the continuation of this policy ... to uprate MUP to save more lives.”
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 26 March 2024
Emma Harper
Thank you for being here this morning. I am interested in how the pandemic impacted alcohol consumption. I have a wee brief in front of me from Alcohol Focus Scotland, which talks about 156 lives being saved and 499 hospital admissions being averted per year, on average. Did the pandemic impact on the data that was being measured by Public Health Scotland?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 26 March 2024
Emma Harper
I forgot to remind everybody that I am a registered nurse and a former liver transplant nurse.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Emma Harper
One of our questions is about having a compatible microchip system whereby dogs that are microchipped in Ireland would be transferable, so that we would be able to trace them more easily. Should that idea be pursued?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Emma Harper
So, it is all compatible, then.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Emma Harper
No, I do not mind.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Emma Harper
I have a question. You talk about getting a good dog. What does “a good dog” mean? Does it mean a dog that is feisty? You do not want them to be fighting other dogs when they are at a track. How do you know that a dog is going to be a good dog?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Emma Harper
I have a quick question. When a greyhound has a litter of puppies, how many puppies are normally in a litter and how many of those puppies become racing greyhounds that are good enough to race? I am thinking about whether there are too many that need to be rehomed after racing.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Emma Harper
Good morning, George and Daniel. Thanks for being here today. I am interested in hearing where dogs are sourced from. You said that you often breed your own, but how do you source your other dogs? For example, I know that Ireland is considered one of the best performance places for greyhounds. I know, too, that the turnaround period for racing is about four years. By that I mean that dogs will only race for that long, so there has to be a turnaround period to keep up with the demand for racing. I am interested in hearing where you source your dogs from.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Emma Harper
We have had debates in the chamber about greyhound racing, and one of the accusations made is about the use of cocaine, amphetamines and steroids, which are banned substances for greyhounds. What are your thoughts on the publication of that kind of information?