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 1148 contributions
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Emma Harper
I have a quick supplementary question. We went into lockdown on 23 March 2020, just two years after the policy was introduced. What effect did the pandemic have on your research and on alcohol consumption? Tara Shivaji mentioned women in response to Tess White’s question. I am interested in that area, too, but we have not talked about the pandemic. Did that have an impact on your research on alcohol consumption?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Emma Harper
I know that there is a lot of work going on regarding sales, marketing and advertising. I am interested in following what is being done in Ireland and the evidence for segregating sales.
I want to pick up on what Clare said about cross-border purchasing, because there needs to be some myth busting and debunking of the idea that folk are driving fae Ecclefechan tae Carlisle to pick up whatever alcohol they want. If they did that, they would have to buy 33 bottles of vodka to save the five quid on petrol that it costs to go the 20 miles fae Ecclefechan tae Carlisle. Also, my understanding is that the price of alcohol is the same in Hawick and Berwick, so if you live in Coldstream you would be crossing the border to go for your shopping anyway. There are not the booze cruises that keep being touted.
I would be interested to hear about the research that is debunking the myths about cross-border purchases. Can you tell us about that?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 7 November 2023
Emma Harper
Okay. Thank you.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 31 October 2023
Emma Harper
So you would promote a bill that supports the establishment of equity for social care workers, equivalent to national health service workers. I suppose that that is what I am driving at. If we are able to demonstrate in the bill that care workers will be given parity, and if the national care service was able to deliver a pathway that increased the visibility of social care, which is the career choice of some people—you are absolutely right that it is predominantly women and that it is not always full-time work—that would be something that you would support.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 31 October 2023
Emma Harper
I have a quick supplementary question.
Cara Stevenson said that something needs to be done now. My understanding is that the Scottish Government published a winter preparedness plan on 24 October, which is a joint publication by the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care and Councillor Paul Kelly, who is COSLA’s health spokesperson. The plan has eight priorities for care and how we support people over the winter.
The development of the bill is for the future, and the winter preparedness plan is action that is being taken right now. Do the eight priorities cover ensuring care at home as much as possible, consistent messaging to the public and supporting staff? There is a focus on recruitment, retention and wellbeing of staff as part of those priorities. I am interested in the priorities that will be delivered over this winter. If we reflect on what works, those priorities could go into the future regulations for the national care service bill. Should we also consider that? The winter preparedness plan is being delivered right now, and its priorities could be reflected on for the future.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 31 October 2023
Emma Harper
Thank you.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 31 October 2023
Emma Harper
Most of what I was gonnae ask about has already been covered. We have kind of covered this, too, but I want to ask about the current status of social care as far as esteem and career pathways go, and in relation to making sure that the public knows the contribution that our care workers make across Scotland. Over the summer, I heard from workers in Stewartry Care about the level of skill and experience involved in what they provide to people in their homes and in care homes. I am interested in what your current members think or perceive about their roles in social care. Does more work need to be done to demonstrate to everybody the value of social care?
I see that Cara’s microphone is on—and I see Lilian Macer nodding, too.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 31 October 2023
Emma Harper
I have a quick question about self-directed support. It is 10 years since the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 was passed, and the committee has heard questions about how self-directed support is working or not working. Donald Macaskill has said that 70 per cent of care involves third sector organisations. I am interested in the difference that the bill can make in addressing immediate challenges in social care, such as improving self-directed support, which is all about people taking control and making choices for themselves.
I am not sure who wants to answer that first.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 31 October 2023
Emma Harper
Good morning. My question is kind of on the back of Sandesh Gulhane’s question. Will establishing a national care service increase the visibility of social care and give it equal weighting and equal standing? In previous scrutiny of the bill, I was keen to look at standardised education, career pathways, increasing social care’s visibility and establishing a process for recognising social care as a professional career pathway, because we see the work that social care providers do when they go into people’s homes, for instance.
I declare an interest, as I am still a registered nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. I am interested in whether you agree that, if the national care service is nationally managed, it will improve the visibility of our care workers.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 31 October 2023
Emma Harper
You have given some good examples, such as PEG tube feeding and caring for people who have stomas, and I was also thinking of the support provided to people for, say, reablement and recovery from stroke. That sort of support involves mobility, moving and handling, all of which requires lots of skill.
Are we confident that at the moment we have a multidisciplinary approach to assessing people’s needs so that care can be delivered effectively? Could we reflect in the bill that need for the right assessment to deliver the right care to the right person?