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 3539 contributions
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Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Kenneth Gibson
That is certainly helpful. It is a lower figure than what I and—I am sure—others have heard. Colleagues may wish to pursue that further.
I want to talk about the capital and fiscal framework. It has been a very difficult year in that the capital allocation from the UK Government has been reduced by £185 million—obviously, with inflation, that figure is higher.
When we asked questions with regard to the capital and fiscal framework, the response was that the Scottish Government has
“disproportionately constrained borrowing and reserve powers.”
Since 2016, inflation has been 39 per cent, but the Scottish Government is still working with the same kind of figures that it had all those years ago. Have you had any indication from the UK Government about when it would be willing to review the borrowing figures, for example? Inflation is 50 per cent higher than it was in 2016—perhaps even 60 per cent or 70 per cent higher. What on-going discussions have you had, because that is clearly having an impact on the Scottish Government’s ability to manage its finances?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Kenneth Gibson
Okay. Behavioural change is another issue that is very important in relation to future Scottish Government policy and thinking. As you will know, the Scottish Fiscal Commission told us that it believes that, although the higher additional rate of tax would raise £30 million on paper, it would raise only £3 million in reality because of behavioural change. The Fiscal Commission emphasises that that change would be more people not working as hard, as opposed to people with more than one address moving their tax affairs south of the border.
However, in your response you said that the Scottish Government had considered the issue and that the
“study found no evidence of significant behaviour change, including cross-border migration, as a result of our move to a more progressive tax system.”
How does that sit with the comments of the Scottish Fiscal Commission, which says that 90 per cent of that income from a simple additional penny will be lost? That is a very dramatic loss for a small increase, yet the Scottish Government seems to be saying that it does not see that happening.
In previous meetings with the committee, you have suggested that the Scottish Government is very aware of behaviour change. Where are we on the issue? It clearly needs further exploration.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Kenneth Gibson
I am just wondering if there is any way—
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Kenneth Gibson
I just wanted to clarify that.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Kenneth Gibson
That will be next year.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Kenneth Gibson
Of course.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Kenneth Gibson
Thank you for that brief opening statement. As is traditional, I will start with a few questions; we will then open out the session to colleagues around the table. My first question relates to one that I posed in the chamber, to which you responded on Thursday, about our estimated overspend. When you gave evidence three weeks ago, I believe that the overspend was between £200 million and £500 million. Work has obviously progressed to reduce it to around £100 million. First, how have you managed to achieve that reduction? Secondly, what steps are being taken to try and eliminate it altogether between now and the end of the financial year?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Kenneth Gibson
I was really keen to get that on the record. I know we talk about always having to balance the budget. People might think that we can just kick things into next year.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Kenneth Gibson
Colleagues may wish to pursue that further.
The committee has raised a number of issues about taxation. For example, we asked when the Scottish Government plans to publish a discussion paper about tax and spending choices. The response that we got was that the rationale for that document has changed and the United Kingdom Government’s mini budget has gradually been unwound. What is the rationale? Is it because of volatility at the moment, or are there other factors to consider?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
Meeting date: 7 February 2023
Kenneth Gibson
ACS is also a social enterprise. The cross-party group on the circular economy is going to visit it. I asked the company about ex-offenders and was told that the level of productivity is excellent. The company would not mind at all if the whole workforce was made up of ex-offenders because they are able to deliver the product that is required.
I have a question about the private finance initiative and public-private partnerships, which placed a significant annual financial burden on the Scottish Government when it came into office in 2007. I understand that interest rates going up has had a significant impact. What impact are increased payments having on the Scottish Government and local authorities?
