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 350 contributions
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 28 September 2023
Roz McCall
Good morning, everyone. I thank the cabinet secretary for the full and frank answers that she has given us. They are very helpful.
I was flicking through my notes and I noted that, last week, Judith Paterson stated that overpayments are “an inevitable consequence” of the process. I appreciate what you have said about overpayments in the answers that you have given so far, but it also came up at last week’s meeting that Social Security Scotland will not seek to recover overpayments of less than £65. What is the Scottish Government’s response to views that that amount should be set higher, and how will we monitor any possible overspends or budget concerns that might come from considering any variance on the amount of £65?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 28 September 2023
Roz McCall
That will be monitored going forward.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 28 September 2023
Roz McCall
Alison, could you also give me an answer? It sounds like that participation is not happening at the moment and is really difficult to bring in. Am I right in thinking that?
Criminal Justice Committee, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, Social Justice and Social Security Committee (Joint Meeting)
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Roz McCall
I did, convener. First and foremost, you can spot the new girl in the room; I apologise for sitting quietly so far. I thank all the witnesses, because for the past hour and a half or so, I have been listening intently to the evidence, which has been very informative.
Tracey McFall made a point that, to me, in my lack of knowledge, sounded as if it was alluding to the national specification for a treatment and recovery system that should be in place across Scotland, which was mentioned earlier.
I know that we have moved on a bit, but I want to come back on that, because I am interested in hearing your opinion. How should we prioritise the creation of a national specification? Where are we on that and what are your thoughts on it? I know that I am taking a slightly different angle in the questioning, but it was alluded to in your evidence.
Tracey, perhaps you would not mind starting, and if anyone else wants to come in on that, they can do so.
Criminal Justice Committee, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, Social Justice and Social Security Committee (Joint Meeting)
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Roz McCall
It certainly does. I would be interested to know whether anyone else has any comments on that.
There is not a thing—good.
Criminal Justice Committee, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, Social Justice and Social Security Committee (Joint Meeting)
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Roz McCall
I understand that. Thank you. I have no more questions.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Roz McCall
I will rephrase my question slightly. My understanding is that the complexities would add to the stigma, and I just really wanted your comments on that. Do you agree that that is the situation?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Roz McCall
We have skirted around this issue already, but I would like to put a bit more detail on it. My question is for Bill Scott, and also for Emma Congreve, if you would not mind making just a wee comment.
In your submission, Bill, you say, on raising revenue, that in addition to prioritising spend, the Scottish Government will need to “raise additional revenue” to make full use of its devolved tax powers. Can you explain your views on how the Government does not currently utilise its tax powers and tell us what your tax working group is considering?
I put it to you that there is a tax structure that could be used and that changing to that structure would be within devolved tax powers. I am interested in whether you think that that is worth looking at.
There is a little bit of a mix there, but I would be grateful, Bill and Emma, if you could come back on that.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Roz McCall
Marie McNair has raised some valid points with Judith Paterson and Fiona Collie. As Judith Paterson said, overpayments are an inevitable consequence, but we are looking at how Social Security Scotland can minimise the issue. That raises the question of what we do when there is an inevitable consequence. What do you suggest that we should do when overpayments occur? We are talking about what we need to do, but I am interested in what you think we should do.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Roz McCall
Thank you, Bill. I am sorry to cut in, but I am really interested in hearing what Emma Congreve has to say. I have got the gist of what you are saying, but, if I do not have a chance to hear Emma, we will have to move on.