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 成人快手 and committees will automatically update to show only the 成人快手 and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of 成人快手 and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of 成人快手 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 714 contributions
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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
How do you see that approach working in grey areas? In the past couple of weeks, we have spoken about bins, roads and potholes. One assumes that they are the day-to-day responsibility of councils, which are experiencing cuts. Tourism and the visitor economy use such facilities, too. How will the balance be struck to ensure that day-to-day work is funded not from the levy but from the budget, as it should be?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
My next question is about having a national cap. Although local authorities are not generally keen on having a national cap, the tourism sector has called for a cap to be set nationally if the percentage rate remains the only option for local authorities. What is the Government鈥檚 response to those views?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
Minister, you said in your opening statement that it is important that the levy is spent in the local authority areas where it is collected. I raised concerns, last week and with the witnesses in today鈥檚 earlier evidence session, about whether the revenue from the visitor levy would be used to plug holes in council budgets. That is a grey area. How do you respond to concerns that, in essence, tourists and businesses are paying the price for the Scottish Government鈥檚 inability to give our councils a fair funding deal for years? Do you agree that the revenue should be ring fenced for tourism-related spending? How do you foresee that working in practice? In particular, how does it fit with the spirit of the Verity house agreement?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax Freeze
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
Minister, you have explained the fact that this has happened, but how do we ensure that it never happens again? Are you or the First Minister or the Scottish Government giving an assurance in that respect? The council tax freeze went ahead without any consultation with any local authorities; we have heard their views on that in committee, and I have heard their views on it outside, too. Local authority leaders and chief executives are not happy that the freeze went ahead without their decision.
I understand the thinking behind the freezing of council tax, but that relationship is what is important here. Are you saying that what happened is a one-off that will never happen again, and that the Government is looking to ensure that such a thing never happens again?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax Freeze
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
According to the Fraser of Allander Institute鈥檚 calculations, the freeze would collectively cost councils around 拢148 million next year, assuming an increase of 5 per cent as there was last year, and they would receive around 拢417 million if they struck a deal that gave them a rise of around 8 per cent. Surely the Scottish Government carried out some kind of analysis before making a commitment to fully fund the freeze. How much does it expect the freeze to cost? More crucially, where will the money come from?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax Freeze
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
Have you started talks with local authorities on what that quantum will be, or are you going to start those talks?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax Freeze
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
I have one more question. The First Minister gave a commitment to fully fund the freeze to ensure that councils can maintain their services, despite offering no real clue as to where the money will come from. It is highly likely that different councils would have planned to have different increases in council tax in order to maintain services in their areas. Will the funds that are allocated to local authorities take into account the variety of council tax hikes that each local authority will have planned?
11:30Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Council Tax Freeze
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
Good morning, minister. As has been mentioned, one of the primary principles of the Verity house agreement has been violated less than four months after the agreement was made. A key part of the agreement centres around there being a robust and regular process for early budget engagement that is embedded in the physical framework. However, the First Minister neglected to inform COSLA that council tax would be frozen for the coming year before he said so in his speech at the Scottish National Party conference.
Is the Verity house agreement even worth the paper that it is written on? If so, how is failing to consult on the decision to freeze council tax in keeping with the agreement鈥檚 principles?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
My question is on how the levy will be raised. Councillor Macgregor has just mentioned that flat rates are much easier to manage and collect and that they are also easier for businesses and local authorities to operate. The committee has heard mixed opinions on whether the levy should be introduced as a percentage rate or a flat rate. As Councillor Macgregor said, the burden of collecting it will fall on businesses. Should the bill be amended to allow local authorities to introduce flat rates if they decide that those are more appropriate for their areas?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Dr Pam Gosal MBE
Although some witnesses call it an accommodation tax, others have asserted that businesses would take up the role of unpaid tax collectors for local authorities. Should companies be able to claim a portion of the revenue from tourist taxes to help offset the costs of collecting and reporting levies in the same way that local authorities will be able to? My question is for Councillor Macgregor.
