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: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
It would also be useful to write to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body to seek clarification of its role in relation to the SPSO and to ask for its views on the action that has been carried out for the petition, specifically in relation to the value of the independent review of the SPSO.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
That information gap might well have been identified, minister, and you have now indicated that through other resources and ways of managing it, it might be closed. We are trying to identify whether such a gap exists—and it would appear that it does—and whether everyone is supported while in custody.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
Has Nicoletta Primo had any involvement with the fair fares review?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
I hope that the situation that the petitioner found herself in is just a one-off, but it might not be. We might assume that, when we get a home report, the fundamentals would be covered in that report. It is important to continue the petition. I would request that we write to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors to seek a view on the issues that are raised by the petition, requesting information on the training and guidance that is provided to surveyors and valuers to ensure the accuracy of information that is included in a home report. We should also ask for RICS’s view on the proposal to include contact details for the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution in home reports. In addition, I think that it would be useful to write to the Law Society of Scotland to seek its views on the issues that are raised in the petition.
If the situation is not one that regularly occurs, the relevant regulations should protect the individual who is purchasing a property. The quality of the survey that surveyors carry out is vitally important.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 7 December 2022
Alexander Stewart
I think that we should take more evidence on the subject. I suggest that we write to the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland, the Confederation of Passenger Transport, and Heads of Planning Scotland, seeking their views on the petition and asking how the views of the taxi and private hire trade are included in their decision-making processes, what scope there is to include the taxi and private hire trade in public transport stakeholder groups, and how engagement and consultation on decisions that affect the services that they provide could be improved.
I suggest that we also write to the Scottish Government to seek an update on what is happening with the short-life working group and to ask for further information on any action that is being undertaken to improve engagement between the taxi and private hire industry and the planning and licensing authorities. That would give us an indication of where we are in the process.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
Meeting date: 24 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
I thank Mr Kerr for his very passionate presentation about ice sport. He identified that there are really good reasons to celebrate it but that there are huge challenges for the sector. Lots of local authorities have a sports council to support and promote individuals progressing through any of these sports, but the biggest challenge is in trying to find facilities that they can go to. As Liam Kerr identified, many local authorities may not be in a strong financial position. One of the biggest issues is that people sometimes have to travel vast distances to find a facility that they can use in order to train regularly. Have you had any correspondence or negotiations with sport councils about what they are considering to ensure that the ice sport sector is given the priority that it deserves across the country?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
You have summarised the process well, convener. At this stage, there is not much requirement for the committee to take things further. It would therefore be appropriate to close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders. As you have indicated, the First Minister has apologised to the women who were convicted, Natalie Don is continuing to progress her member’s bill, and the petitioner has indicated that plans are being taken forward for a national memorial. Under those circumstances, there is not much point in the committee progressing things, because they have already moved on considerably since the petition was lodged.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
I note the petitioner’s comments, and it is also interesting to see the information that has come back from the Scottish Government. Looking at the permitted development rights on digital infrastructure, I am not sure that, in reality, we can take the petition much further. Therefore, I propose that we close it under rule 15.7 of standing orders on the basis that the Scottish Government has recently reviewed and updated the permitted development rights for digital infrastructure, considered its position and struck “an appropriate balance” and that there are no current plans for further amendments to those rights.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
You have already alluded to the fact that potential gaps still exist around the MAT standards. Is anything still needed to ensure that the standards are fully implemented and working as intended?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Alexander Stewart
Did the Scottish Government consult with the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce on the evidence gap that was identified regarding prescription medication being made available to individuals who are in custody? If so, what progress has been made on that?