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
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
It is important that we collate as much information on this topic as we can. If we contact those agencies and organisations that you indicated, convener, they will be able to give us their views on any action that may be required. That will enable us to take a much better and a more holistic approach to challenging the issues raised by the petition. As Carol Mochan has said, the law requires updating. It has been decades since the issue has been examined in that way. By collecting that information and putting it all together we will have a much better picture as to how the issue is being approached across those organisations in Scotland.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
This is a very important issue. We have heard about some areas in the submissions that we have already received, but we need to get more information. We should write to the Scottish Government highlighting the online systems that have been introduced in Australia and in the Netherlands and seek information on what considerations have been given to developing a similar service in Scotland for parents who have separated. It would be very useful for us to collate information on other countries that have put that in place.
It might be quite useful for us to seek the views of some of the organisations that we have here in Scotland, such as the Law Society of Scotland, the Family Law Association, the Scottish Legal Aid Board, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, Relationships Scotland and the family law committee of the Scottish Civil Justice Council, to find out where we can take the petition. Those are my suggestions, convener.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
I think that we need to write to COSLA to ask which of the local authorities are yet to roll out the mentors in violence prevention programme in secondary schools, requesting information about what challenges have prevented implementation and details of work planned to address those. We should ask what challenges local government faces in embedding schools-based prevention of violence against women and girls.
We should also write to Rape Crisis Scotland to request information on its reporting mechanisms for its equally safe at school—ESAS—strategy and whether its planned work with local authorities has resulted in an increase in ESAS activities across Scotland. That information would be very useful and clarify where we are in this whole process. As you have indicated, convener, this is an immensely important issue. If measures are embedded at school level, that will help to prevent gender-based violence once pupils have left school.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
Progress is being made, but we require more information. I suggest that we write to the Minister for Transport encouraging the Scottish Government to continue to make progress on the issue, which has already been raised by other MSPs and not just by those on this committee. We should also recommend that it explores all available options to formalise the role of community representation on boards of public organisations providing a lifeline service to island communities. We have discussed some of those organisations in the past, when we have talked about the representation on HIAL, David MacBrayne Ltd or CMAL. It is those types of organisations that we would be requesting the minister to give us more information about. With that information, we can then assess what progress is really being made.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
I agree with that. I think that the petitioners have found that there is a gap, and there is no doubt that the process is confusing and complex. A whistleblower might well be what is required. By getting information from those organisations, we will get a better flavour of how the process is working. There is guidance in place but, as I said, I think that there is a gap in the process, which that action might help us to understand. Also, we should ask the Government how it plans to progress the issue, if the gap is perceived to be real, and we should ask to what extent it is focused on addressing it.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
Thank you for your comments so far. NICE has already done some appraisals and some technological outlook work to see what has been happening with the product in question. Are you aware of any other countries that are using Evusheld that have carried out appraisals or technological processes that are similar to those that are being undertaken by NICE?
10:30Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
There was a health authority in one country—was it Ontario Health?—that had some issues with Evusheld. I think that Ontario Health would not recommend its being used routinely. Are you aware of any other countries that have withdrawn it or are having difficulty with it?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
I agree that the sessions were very informative, but it is now time to follow up on some of that information.
I suggest that we seek details of the 2018 suicide prevention action plan evaluation. It is important that we try to establish where we are and when the outcome framework for the new suicide prevention action plan will be published. It is also important to have specific information on mental health assessment units, including locations, funding, patient uptake and any expansion. We felt very strongly about that, and there is room for more detail on that and for it to be expanded. It would also be useful to have an update on whether the Scottish Government will publish its response to the Scottish mental health law review before summer recess.
Those are some recommendations that I would make on the petition.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
I am perplexed by this in some ways. I appreciate what the Scottish Government is saying about what it is attempting to do, but, in my view, there are still areas of responsibility that may require some clarity. I think that the time lapse on this is also stressful. I note what the petitioner says about being let down and the complexities of such issues. There is no doubt that there is exposure of individuals to potential abusers in the process.
I would seek some clarity. I would like to see more information from organisations that may be able to give us a little bit more advice and support. I suggest that we write to the Law Society of Scotland. I think that Scottish Women’s Aid, Shared Parenting Scotland and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland have a role, too.
I acknowledge what the Government is saying. In due course, things may improve, but at the present time I do not see that being the reality.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Alexander Stewart
It would be also useful to gather more information from organisations that you have talked about in the past. The Law Society of Scotland has a role, as do the Family Law Association and Shared Parenting Scotland. Their views and opinions would be useful, in addition to what David Torrance said we should ask the Scottish Law Commission.