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 1691 contributions
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Michelle Thomson
I am sure that we will all watch the area with interest. Thank you.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 16 April 2024
Michelle Thomson
Is there a possibility that the report was commissioned to neutralise objections, given that the committee was going to be looking at the landscape?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 16 April 2024
Michelle Thomson
However, as you set out in your statement, the team wants there to be a new commissioner—that is a statement of fact. You have found out some other incidental stuff but, as Ms Smith pointed out at the start of our session, we are looking at the wider landscape including independence, governance, accountability, costs, budget lines and overlap, which are underpinned by strategic positioning and—critically—outcomes. It sounds very much as though you were given a different brief, to look more gently at the concept of introducing a further commissioner, by the directorate that wants to do so.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 16 April 2024
Michelle Thomson
Thank you. You mentioned human rights earlier. In any discussions about the concept of a number of commissions or commissioners looking at human rights and the complexity around that, was there any recognition that creating a hierarchy of rights could be problematic, or did the discussion not go to that depth? In the Parliament, we have seen challenges with recognising different sets of rights, and we see that in the wider environment, too.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 16 April 2024
Michelle Thomson
Good morning and thank you for joining us. I have a couple of quick questions. Your report states that the Scottish Government commissioned you. Can I check whether the directorate that commissioned you is the same one that is now looking at introducing a new commissioner for learning disability, autism and neurodiversity?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 16 April 2024
Michelle Thomson
In other words, it is potentially in the team’s interests to limit the scope of what your research would evaluate. Let us imagine for a minute that the team is keen on introducing a new commissioner for its area of interest. It would make sense to limit the scope of what you were asked to evaluate in terms of the wider landscape, as you set out today in your evidence. Is that a fair assessment?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 16 April 2024
Michelle Thomson
What reception did you get for your research? Have you met the team subsequently and have you taken any feedback from it? If so, what was that?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 16 April 2024
Michelle Thomson
Thank you very much. That is all, convener.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 26 March 2024
Michelle Thomson
Good morning to the witnesses, and thank you for attending the meeting.
I want to pick up on that last point and reiterate what my colleague Liz Smith and the convener have said. It is absolutely necessary that we have an updated financial memorandum before the conclusion of stage 1, and certainly before the production of any report. That is because the satisfaction of the Finance and Public Administration Committee critically depends on the numbers being within certain ranges and as accurate as they can be. I add my voice to that. That is very important.
As well as the finance side, we have responsibility for public administration. I must admit that I am quite surprised at how we have ended up where we are in respect of organisational culture. My colleague Liz Smith set the backdrop. We have seen an increasing number of framework bills. Such bills carry significant risks to the public purse in that a lot of the costs are put in past the stage at which the numbers bods—that is, us—are able to look at them in detail. From a public purse point of view, they represent a significant risk of a waste of money. What conversations are going on in your area about the risks against the backdrop of chronic shortages in public sector funding? What are the risks that are actively being considered of using framework bills?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 26 March 2024
Michelle Thomson
Does any other project management training take place or is it just all in-house, as you have articulated?