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 3298 contributions
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Richard Leonard
My final question is: could we receive a copy of the final framework document when it is signed off by the cabinet secretary, please?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Richard Leonard
Good morning, and welcome to the 12th meeting of the Public Audit Committee in this session.
The first item on our agenda is a decision on taking items 3 and 4 in private. If any member objects to taking items 3 and 4 in private, please raise your hand. I see no objections, so I take that as assent. Thank you.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Richard Leonard
The second item on our agenda is further evidence on the Audit Scotland report on the Crofting Commission. I am pleased to welcome our Scottish Government witnesses, who all join us online: Roy Brannen is the interim director general for net zero, Andrew Scott is the director for agriculture and rural economy, and John Kerr is the head of the agricultural policy division.
To get us under way, I invite Mr Brannen to make a short opening statement.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Richard Leonard
Did you want to come back in, Mr Brannen?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Richard Leonard
Other committee members will probe that matter later.
Mr Brannen, you said that the framework document for the commission is with the cabinet secretary for sign-off, but our understanding is that the Crofting Commission’s board has not yet agreed the document. Can you clarify the situation in that respect?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Richard Leonard
So, there was a board meeting this week at which the framework document was signed off.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Richard Leonard
Thank you for clarifying that.
On a number of occasions, our predecessor committee raised concerns about the adequacy of sponsorship arrangements between the Scottish Government and public bodies. Our understanding is that the responsibility for such arrangements is clearly set out in the Scottish public finance manual. To what extent did the sponsorship arrangements for the Crofting Commission meet the requirements that are set out in that manual?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Richard Leonard
Thank you for that helpful clarification, Mr Kerr.
I realise that, in the tone of what has been said so far, there has been a sense that we are looking back in history, but the fact is that we are concerned about ensuring that, in the contemporary dealings between the sponsor division and the Crofting Commission and in the relationships between the senior management team and the board, everything is in order. The Audit Scotland report has highlighted some quite alarming things about the failure to properly consult internally commissioners and members of the board, which, I have to say, rang alarm bells for us.
Before I bring in Craig Hoy, I will ask one final question. According to the auditor’s audit dimensions and best value report, when the CEO asked the sponsor division for backing, it was for “anticipated opposition” from the board when the CEO was attempting to drive through changes. It was also reported that the sponsor division suggested that
“the CEO ignore the Board’s opposition and proceed as he sees fit”.
Understandably, the auditor described that as undermining
“the role of the Board”
and overstating
“the role of the Sponsor Division”.
Can you explain how such a situation occurred?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Richard Leonard
Actually, I think that Andrew Scott wants to come in at this juncture.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 16 December 2021
Richard Leonard
Thank you for those answers. Colin Beattie has a series of questions about sponsorship arrangements.