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 691 contributions
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2023
Alexander Stewart
As you identify, managing that communication is vitally important so that there is no misunderstanding of the complexity—it might not be black or white; there are still grey areas in all of this. As members, we acknowledge that and think about how we fit into the process, but we and others must have confidence that your organisation will not only manage and support but investigate and be able to show, at the end, that you have gone through the process fairly and without favour. That is what we need to see in order to have confidence in the organisation. There might have been a slight lack of confidence in the past, but we all want to get to that place—I have no doubt that you do, and your report itemises that very clearly. We need to be sure that the steps that you are taking are making progress and that we are seeing that resolution for the future.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 March 2023
Alexander Stewart
At the previous meeting, I asked for some of that information, which we have now received. In the circumstances that we now find ourselves in, I propose that we close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders on the basis that the JCVI has no plans to review the need for or value of an HPV vaccination catch-up programme for boys due to the indirect protection offered through herd immunity. We have collated and brought forward information, but I do not believe that it will change the direction of where we are.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 March 2023
Alexander Stewart
The petitioner makes some valid points. It is apparent that things have not really changed in that time. It would be useful to write to SEPA to highlight the issues that have been raised by the petitioner, seek information about the review of the regulation of private sewerage systems and ask whether consideration has been given to alternative approaches for identifying and authorising private sewage discharges. As I said, the petition makes some valid points, and I would keep it open in order to ask SEPA to clarify those issues.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 March 2023
Alexander Stewart
There is no doubt that COSLA has a strong case with reference to the estate, but the Children and Young People’s Commissioner also gave us some suggestions. It might therefore be useful to not close the petition at this stage but seek more information. I suggest that we write to the Scottish Government to ask what consideration has been given to reviewing and updating the learning estate strategy in the light of the comments that the Children and Young People’s Commissioner has made. That might give us further indication. I acknowledge what COSLA says and that the petition may not be able to progress after that, but, at this stage, it might be useful for us to get some of that information.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 March 2023
Alexander Stewart
As you say, this is a very topical issue and members and communities have been sceptical about what is taking place. More requires to be done. We should keep the petition open. It might be useful to find out from the Scottish Government what proportion of Scotland currently has superfast broadband and when it is anticipated that all households will have it. In your comments, you touched on rural locations and geographical challenges. It is vital that we find out whether the Government has evaluated the full fibre broadband charter in Scotland and the efficacy of extending and expanding the build into remote, rural and geographically challenging areas. That is the crux of it. It is those locations that have the problem. Those communities and their representatives are sceptical about where things are going and how they are progressing. If we can get some of that information from the Scottish Government, it will help our deliberation.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 March 2023
Alexander Stewart
I am more than happy to take the views of the committee, convener.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 March 2023
Alexander Stewart
I concur with Mr Torrance’s comments. It is vital that we find out where the defibrillators are and their background. I am aware that charitable organisations also do a lot of work on this; they fundraise for local areas and provide defibrillators. It might be useful to find out whether they are doing anything. I know, for example, that the Order of St John is doing a national campaign across Scotland to introduce defibrillators to churches, golf clubs and other appropriate locations. It would be useful to find out whether anything that they are doing could complement or supplement what will happen through Mr Torrance’s suggestions.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
So you really want to see it embedded in the process that there should be a liaison officer who is seconded and then given the opportunity to support.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
Stephanie, thank you for your bravery today. That is much appreciated.
You talked in your statement about the failings and the trust that has been lost. I can very much appreciate that being the case, but what would you like to see improved with families? That is what you want to see here—that nobody else is put through a similar situation to what you had.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
I think that we should write to the Scottish Government requesting an update on when the analysis report and policy response to the consultation into ending the sale of energy drinks to children and young people will be published. In addition, I would suggest that we recommend that it commissions further research into the effects of fast-release caffeine products on children and young people, particularly those participating in physical activity.
It might also be useful to seek some clarity from UK Athletics, to seek its views on where we are in relation to the issues that are raised in the petition. Information on any action that it is undertaking to address the potential risks to athletes under 18 using fast-release caffeine products for performance enhancement would give us an indication as to how that is being managed and processed.