Official Report: search what was said in Parliament
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.
Searching by different views
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
- Report: this is the whole Official Report for a particular meeting of a committee or Parliament
- Item of business: this is each individual agenda item in an Official Report. For example, Portfolio Questions would be the item of business in a Meeting of the Parliament report
- Contribution: this is each time someone has made a spoken contribution to a meeting.
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.
Search by MSP
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.
Searching by keyword
There are two types of keyword search:
- A keyword search without quotation marks will look for every instance of each word used and rank the results by frequency and proximity. It will also include variants of the keywords using “porter stemming”. This is when the search looks for the “stem” of a word regardless of its ending. So, for example, a search for [salmon farm] will return each instance of “salmon” and each instance of “farm” as well as potentially including results for “farms”, “farmed” and “farming”.
- A keyword search with quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase used. So, for example, a search for “salmon farm” in quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase.
Combining search filters
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.
More complex keyword searches
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
- a search for “salmon farm” AND “Loch Lomond” will return only results which include both exact phrases
- a search for “salmon farm” NOT “Loch Lomond” will return results for “salmon farm” but exclude results which also include “Loch Lomond”
- a search for “salmon farm” OR “Loch Lomond” will return all results for “salmon farm” and all results for “Loch Lomond” regardless of whether they appear together
Searching by date
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:
- Current session (all Official Reports since the current sessions started)
- Last 6 months
- Last 12 months
- each of the previous sessions of Parliament. (Selecting the information icon above the “Select a time period” menu will give you the exact dates for each session.)
- All sessions
- You can also choose to select a custom date range, although adding a Start or End date will mean the search automatically defaults to this option.
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.
Criathragan Hide all filters
Displaying 1127 contributions
|
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Craig Hoy
Good morning. For the record, in relation to the structure of investment zones and the way in which this relief will apply in Scotland, are those broadly comparable or an absolute replica of the way in which investment zones in England are applying reliefs on stamp duty?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Craig Hoy
Fine. I turn to the elephant in the room, which is the election. There is a significant projection in there, a large element of which is contingencies. Perhaps Mr Carlaw or Mr McGill might want to say for the record what those contingencies are, what the contingent dependencies are and what may or may not happen that could result in that £6 million contingency being used.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Craig Hoy
I note that some investment zones and freeports in England have not been designated as special tax sites, whereas the two in Scotland have. Is there any reason why some investment zones in England are not special tax sites but both of those in Scotland are?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Craig Hoy
Good morning, Mr Carlaw. You will be aware that, throughout Government now, there is real pressure to look at making efficiency savings. In your evidence, you have talked about the possibility of a 5 per cent increase in productivity, because of the shorter working week, and the possibility of carrying a 5 per cent vacancy rate. Does that suggest that, in the past, we might not have been as efficient as we could have been? How much further and faster can you go in trying to make efficiency savings in future years?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Craig Hoy
My next question links to that point in relation to pressures on MSPs’ offices. The flipside of the use of technology is that we are all receiving far more automated requests, particularly on emotive issues such as euthanasia, gender, animal welfare and so on. The Westminster staff support budget is now somewhere in the region of £280,000 per year for MPs who are not based in London. As with the point that Jackson Carlaw made, MSPs seem to have fallen behind. I am not necessarily advocating for an increase in MSPs’ office cost allowances, but what benchmarking has the corporate body done over time to see whether the staff cost provision is keeping up with, for example, the Westminster Parliament?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Craig Hoy
Absolutely.
I will ask about some of the grander areas of spending. It appears that restaurant services potentially cost £0.8 million—
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Craig Hoy
Nor might you, Mr Carlaw.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Craig Hoy
I have a specific question in relation to members’ accommodation. Thinking about those members who rent a flat—which, in some respects, might be a more efficient approach for those who live further afield—I note that councils can now charge double council tax and that, as a result of recent legislation, that multiplier has been extended. Is that one of the issues that you will be looking into? Is it putting pressure on accommodation allowances, given that £2,000 to £3,000 is potentially being added?
Finally, the legislation that allows for the doubling of council tax exempts those who require two properties for the purpose of employment. That will cover a Church of Scotland minister living in a manse, but not an MSP who happens to live in the Highlands but works three days a week in Edinburgh. Have you made any representations in that respect?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 6 January 2026
Craig Hoy
Do you accept the principle that by reducing a tax or eliminating it altogether, you can achieve a positive outcome?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Budget Scrutiny 2026-27 (United Kingdom Context)
Meeting date: 16 December 2025
Craig Hoy
We discussed that with the Auditor General last week. Over the past 10 to 15 years, the freezing of thresholds, particularly in Scotland, where new tax rates have been introduced, means that more and more people are being dragged into the higher rates of tax. The upper rate of tax—rather than the Scottish top rate—used to be in single figures. Between now and the end of the decade, it could be approaching 40-plus per cent. How does where the tax base falls in relation to the different tax rates compare with comparative nations?
