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 łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees will automatically update to show only the łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of łÉČËżěĘÖ and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of łÉČËżěĘÖ 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 1169 contributions
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Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Sharon Dowey
Good morning. HMRC uses the same systems to administer income tax whether a taxpayer is from Scotland or from elsewhere in the UK. However, it operates additional rules and procedures for Scotland, such as residency checks and the application of “S” tax codes if individuals are identified as Scottish taxpayers.
The NAO report states that, as has been the case in previous years, one of the main administrative challenges that is faced by HMRC is the maintenance of an accurate and complete record of Scottish taxpayer residency addresses. That is because HMRC relies on taxpayers to notify it of any change of address. What can be done to improve on that? Would a legal requirement to notify HMRC of address changes assist with that administrative challenge and with overall compliance?
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Sharon Dowey
The most recent scan of taxpayer records to
“identify missing or invalid postcodes which would result in incorrect residency status being applied”
was in June 2021. It identified 25,488 missing or invalid postcodes, of which 3,031 were updated.
Reported postcodes, whether missing or invalid, represent 1 per cent of the 2.5 million total income tax population in 2020-21. A small number of missing taxpayers can potentially equate to a large amount of revenue, especially if that group contains high-net-worth individuals.
Has the NAO received an update from HMRC around the monitoring of that situation, and specifically on the causes of missing or invalid postcodes? What might the impact be on revenues, and what, if anything, is being done to address the matter?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Sharon Dowey
Some of my colleagues have questions on sustainability and keeping up the momentum.
There are an awful lot of recommendations over a short timescale. If, as we hope, things are successful, are there lessons to be learned and good practice that could be shared with others?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Sharon Dowey
Your report states that the auditor has assessed all 41 recommendations that were made in the 2020-21 audit report as being “fully implemented” by the commission. Of those recommendations, 34 were in relation to significant weaknesses in leadership and governance arrangements, as identified in last year’s audit. That is a lot of recommendations. Are you content that those significant issues have been adequately addressed in what seems to be quite a short period?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Sharon Dowey
The committee’s report on the 2020-21 audit of the Crofting Commission recommended that
“the Crofting Commission and the Scottish Government put plans in place to regularly review the revised framework document to ensure it remains fit for purpose.”
Do you know what plans—if any—are in place?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 19 January 2023
Sharon Dowey
Good morning. The report notes that the Scottish Government can borrow ÂŁ450 million per year, up to a cumulative total of ÂŁ3 billion, for capital spending. It then points out that capital borrowing in 2021-22 was ÂŁ150 million; it has been below the ÂŁ450 million threshold in each of the last four years. You also note that there is limited information on how capital borrowing is being used.
The Scottish Government can also borrow for resource spending, up to a maximum of ÂŁ300 million per year and up to a cumulative maximum of ÂŁ1,750 million.
Is the Scottish Government sufficiently transparent about its decisions to undertake both capital and resource borrowing?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 19 January 2023
Sharon Dowey
Okay. Thank you. I will move on to investment in private companies. Specifically, the paper mentions Prestwick airport, Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Holdings Ltd, Burntisland Fabrications Ltd, or BiFab, and the Lochaber aluminium smelter. Starting with Prestwick airport, what are the financial implications for the Scottish Government of continued failure to find a buyer for it?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 19 January 2023
Sharon Dowey
What better information could be provided to support effective scrutiny of the use of capital borrowing powers and the specific projects that it supports?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 19 January 2023
Sharon Dowey
Do you have any concerns about the increasing level of repayment charges for the borrowing, and does the Scottish Government take any view on what is considered reasonable?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”
Meeting date: 19 January 2023
Sharon Dowey
That brings me to my last question. Is there sufficient transparency in the Scottish Government’s investment in private companies, including the rationale for investment and the reasons behind failed or rejected bids for subsequent sales of investments? How could transparency in that area be improved?
