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: 2 May 2023
Emma Harper
Professor Archibald, you talked about prevention and keeping folk out of hospital. I am the convener of the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on lung health. We talk about keeping fit, healthy and out of hospital people who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It is the same for asthma. Are you undertaking such work as well?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Emma Harper
I will be very brief, convener.
Earlier, Louise Thornton said that we are on a journey to improve coverage of sport. I agree with Catherine Houlihan that it is not about women doing women’s sport and men doing men’s sport, but is about covering sport and supporting sport and physical activity for folk to be healthier, too.
The six nations women’s rugby tournament is on now. It does not say that Scottish rugby women or Scottish rugby men are playing; it is just Scottish rugby. Is that a way to convey support for women in sport? Should we take gender out and just talk about Scottish rugby, for example, no matter which six nations tournament is going on, to demonstrate our support for women in sport?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Emma Harper
I want to pick up on that. I am a Stranraer lass and I now live in Dumfries. ITV Border is our go-to channel for curling and for the Solway Sharks Ladies ice hockey team. I am interested in whether you track the data that Catherine Salmond talked about, regarding digital access online. You are right that the area is different; rugby is just massive in Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders, for women and men, and ice hockey and curling are also big. Do you monitor or track what people are watching on the telly?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Emma Harper
Picking up on Tess White’s point, I see women pundits on the telly who were previously professional footballers or rugby players. Is there an opportunity for people who have played sport—professionally or otherwise—to enter a career in journalism? How would they go about doing so? Would they need to have a degree or qualification? If so, would that be at college, university or postgraduate stage? What opportunities do women who have retired from professional sport have to become journalists?
I am looking first at Margaret Mary Murray, because she is nodding.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Emma Harper
Okay.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 25 April 2023
Emma Harper
I propose Clare Haughey as convener.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Meeting date: 20 April 2023
Emma Harper
Thank you and good morning. It is nice to be here. I have no interests to declare.
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Emma Harper
I was reading over the weekend that the Norwegian beach handball team was fined for not wearing the regulation bikini, because they came out to play in shorts. The bottom line was that they had campaigned for 15 years not to wear bikinis, because sometimes they fall down or slip up and are not comfortable.
There have been issues with regard to the uniforms that are supposed to be worn and what might be available. I have also been reading about sports hijabs for women and allowing women to choose what to wear so that they can be comfortable and participate in sport. That sort of thing seems to be growing among women who, for instance, want to align with the teachings of Islam.
Lee Craigie talked earlier about how clothing is only pink, purple or some colour in between. What are your thoughts on the availability, comfort and sizing of clothing, and what we need to support the participation of women and girls, especially adolescent girls, in sport?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Emma Harper
I am interested in the use of social media in that regard. For instance, when the Dumfries Ice Bowl recently hosted an ice hockey world championship, I put stuff up on Facebook about the Solway Sharks Ladies ice hockey team. I am interested in Lee Craigie’s perspective on that, particularly in relation to the gravel championships, which are not as tough as mountain-biking events but are still pretty tough. What are your thoughts on the use of social media as a way to widen the visibility of women in sport?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Emma Harper
I will go specifically to Connie Ramsay because she is fae Tain, which is pretty rural, and because Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders, which are in my region, are outside the central belt. My simple question is: what are the challenges in getting young women and girls to participate in sport in rural parts of Scotland?