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 2352 contributions
Public Audit Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Graham Simpson
So, something must have happened that year. However, you cannot figure out what it is.
Public Audit Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Graham Simpson
So, as an auditor, you come in when something has already happened; it is too late, and there is nothing you can do. You just discover what has gone on, and the discussions that you have are more or less along the lines of, “Well, that shouldn’t have happened. Don’t let it happen again.”
Public Audit Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Graham Simpson
Basically, that is what happens.
Public Audit Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 8 October 2025
Graham Simpson
I will come on to paragraph 15 in a second, but I just want to go back to Nicola Wright and the discussions that were had. Once you had discovered what had happened, Nicola, you must have asked, “Why did this happen?” Did nobody explain it properly?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 2 October 2025
Graham Simpson
I am delighted that we have arrived at this point and that we have the regulations in front of the committee. Dealing with the matter is long overdue. As has been said, the public do not expect people to hold dual mandates, so dealing with it is a good thing.
I have a couple of questions to follow on from what the convener asked. I just want to be clear that, in relation to the House of Lords, it will no longer be possible for somebody to take a leave of absence. We have one member of this Parliament who has done that. Is that correct?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 2 October 2025
Graham Simpson
Okay. My next question is about councillors. I expect that, in the Scottish Parliament election next year, a number of people who are returned to the Parliament will be councillors. That is always the case. They will not have to stand down as councillors for a year, let us say, until the next council elections. However, we also have a position whereby a councillor could become an MSP mid-term. That has happened before. We had an example in the previous session, when Tom Mason came in. You have chosen a period whereby somebody like Tom Mason would have to stand down as a councillor within 49 days. Why did you arrive at that period?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 2 October 2025
Graham Simpson
Okay.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 2 October 2025
Graham Simpson
That is entirely correct. I have no further questions.
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 2 October 2025
Graham Simpson
Yes. I am not going to name the member, but we know who it is. If that member was to stand next year and be returned to this Parliament, they would not be able to continue in the House of Lords. They would have a choice to make—is that correct?
Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 2 October 2025
Graham Simpson
I understand the 49-day figure for MPs and MSPs. You are trying to avoid the summer period. However, if a councillor is returned and they become an MSP, that could happen at any time of the year, so the 49-day period is a bit illogical.