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.
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Displaying 1714 contributions
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Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Michael Marra
I will start in the area that Liz Smith touched on, and I thank you for your evidence on that so far.
In your evidence, you stated that you did not see any other options in front of you in regard to the mitigation of the two-child cap. At your previous committee appearance, I asked you to write to the committee to set out why you chose that option in preference to the others in the options appraisal that you carried out, and you said, “Okay” to that.
In our report, we again set that out and said:
“The Committee welcomes the Cabinet Secretary’s commitment to provide a copy of the options appraisal setting out why it chose this specific model for mitigating the two-child cap and looks forward to considering this in due course.”
In your response, you said:
“Ministers have considered a range of possible approaches to mitigation, balancing cost, the pace at which payment arrangements can be put in place and ... the need to get the systems up and running safely.”
Was there a range of options or not?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Michael Marra
I understand that. I suppose that I am interested in the policy-making process and the relationship with the civil service around that. The Scottish Fiscal Commission has repeatedly set out its concerns—it did so in its long-term forecast—about the size of the social security bill, which is a considerable worry to it. Has the civil service at no point come back to you about the instruction that you have given it or expressed any concerns about the fiscal risks that are involved? Has there been no discussion of a ministerial direction?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Michael Marra
What approach should the UK Cabinet have taken?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Michael Marra
It was a quote from the Official Report, cabinet secretary.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Michael Marra
That relates to the recommendation that you took to the civil service. It gave you the costings. However, you told us in your response that you considered a range of possible approaches. Did the civil service provide you with information about other approaches or was it just one approach?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Michael Marra
That is good to hear.
I will close on public sector reform. We have heard about the money that is to be saved and about Minister McKee’s work in that area and the summit that he held this week. You have already set out some useful figures showing projected additional savings of £380 million in the years to come, which is good to hear. Ivan McKee said that the framework for some of that will be delivered near the start of the 2025-26 financial year.
What is the difference between what we are seeing now and the resource spending review that the Government stopped? What do you think is the difference between those two programmes? One was published three years ago. You previously told us, and have said again today, that that was a bit of a blunt tool, so what do you think is the difference between the programme that was put in front of Parliament three years ago and the process that is now being undertaken?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Michael Marra
The committee has been quite clear about our desire to see a directed plan that follows a strategy. The committee is unanimous on that, as is shown in what we have published.
The resource spending review asked for
“investment in systems and processes, with targeted workforce growth in priority areas”,
and said that
“We do not propose a uniform approach due to varying trends in demand for different services.”
The resource spending review acknowledged that there was no global figure for reduction, but that there were specific plans for different areas, which is the same as what is being described now. So, my core question is this: have we just wasted the three years between the publication of that document and where we are now?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Michael Marra
You are the director of public spending for the Scottish Government, Mr McCallum, so you will have a direct insight into this. Is bringing the policy solution and then asking the civil service to cost it up and do it a typical way of developing a policy? Is a more typical way not to go to the civil service and have a discussion about the minister’s intent and what they are seeking to achieve, and for the civil service to then come back with options and say, “These are what we think are the best ways to do it, minister,” so that you can make a decision on that, because you are the Government?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Michael Marra
Yes, absolutely. One of my concerns is pace and how long it is taking. Children are living in poverty right now, and we want that action to take place as soon as possible. In your response to our report, you said that you considered different options around pace, but you are not setting out any other options to me. You have said one thing here, which is the evidence that you have just given. Were the civil servants involved in the discussions?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2025-26
Meeting date: 18 February 2025
Michael Marra
Okay. I will move on.
We have covered some national insurance issues. There are shared concerns about the impact on the public sector and the private sector. Across the board, it is a real challenge. What would your alternative be for raising the £5.2 billion of extra funding that has come into the budget for Scotland? How should that money have been raised?
