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 3123 contributions
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Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Richard Leonard
I want to check something with you. We previously referred to SIMEC Lochaber Hydropower Ltd as SIMEC Energy. I do not know whether SIMEC Lochaber Hydropower Ltd is another incarnation of it, or whether that is the correct name that it has always had. It has not submitted audited accounts. Has the Liberty Group submitted audited accounts? Has the GFG Alliance submitted audited accounts?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Richard Leonard
One of the areas that you mentioned in your opening statement was the long-standing request for whole-of-government accounts to be produced. There have been delays, talk of alternative proposals and so on. Will you give us an update on where we are at with the issue in a little bit more detail?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Richard Leonard
As I understand it, you audit the Scottish National Investment Bank. Is that correct?
Public Audit Committee
Decision on Taking Business in Private
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Richard Leonard
Good morning, and welcome, everybody, to the 32nd meeting in 2023 of the Public Audit Committee. We have received apologies from Colin Beattie.
The first agenda item for members to consider is whether to take items 3, 4 and 5 in private. Do we agree to take those items in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Richard Leonard
Okay. We will, no doubt, have the accountable officers from the Government and, possibly, the permanent secretary before us in the new year to talk about some of those things.
The committee has also concerned itself with Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd. As you highlight in the section 22 report on the consolidated accounts, a written authority was required this year for the first time since 2007. The director general for the economy sought a written authority from the cabinet secretary, because he did not think that continuing to construct vessel 802 in the yard represented, in his assessment, value for money. That was based on some external reports, as well. To what extent have you had access to the documentation that informed the Government’s decision making on that?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Richard Leonard
They were not aimed at you in particular, Graham.
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Richard Leonard
Two years ago, the House of Commons Select Committee on Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was fairly direct in its conclusions. It said:
“we believe that until Mr Gupta restructures his GFG Alliance companies into a more acceptable corporate structure and publishes consolidated accounts that are adequately audited ... he fails to fulfil the criteria that we believe should be applied to define a fit and proper person for the purposes of receiving any form of Government support.”
That is a pretty direct assessment of where we are, is it not?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Richard Leonard
Okay. We have some questions about the European structural and investment funds that Willie Coffey wants to lead on.
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Richard Leonard
Graham Simpson would like to come in. Is this a follow-up to Willie Coffey’s earlier line of questioning?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 7 December 2023
Richard Leonard
Okay, but there is mention in the report of associated risk, which would be of interest to the committee.
May I just check something, Carole? You mentioned March: will you get an answer by March on whether the Government will conduct a review, or will it have conducted the review by March?
