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.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
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.
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.
There are two types of keyword search:
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.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
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:
If you search by an individual session, the list of ˿ and committees will automatically update to show only the ˿ and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of ˿ and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of ˿ 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.
Displaying 2049 contributions
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Bob Doris
I would presume so. We can clarify that, but I think that it is self-evident from the legislation that the community should be involved in the consultation process.
I will leave it there. Perhaps that is something that the committee will have to return to.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Bob Doris
That was helpful. If SEPA were aware of environmental damage, it would not wait for a formal complaint to investigate that—it would just get on and do that. There are precedents in that respect across the public sector.
Does Laurie Macfarlane have any thoughts on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 3 December 2024
Bob Doris
Yes.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Bob Doris
That is helpful. I apologise in advance, but I will steal that mention of “cutting holes in ... pockets” relentlessly, particularly during the budget process.
Professor Sinclair, I will address my final question to you. I previously asked about how the scrutiny process could deliver effective action to tackle poverty. Any additional comments on that would be welcome, but we are scrutinising the 2017 act. At stages 2 and 3 of that bill, significant amendments were made to it to make it about more than just cash in people’s pockets, and to address the wider view of child poverty that Mr Dickie has eloquently put on the record. For example, there were amendments on supporting local authorities to consider automated benefit payments, on the availability and affordability of childcare and on educational attainment. A variety of measures were put in the act so that we were not being simplistic about how we tackle child poverty and could make it an enduring success. Have those amendments at stages 2 and 3 helped the Scottish Government and the Parliament in their endeavour to tackle child poverty in a more rounded way?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Bob Doris
Mr Birt, do you want to come in briefly? I am conscious that we have explored data a bit and that Ms Smith is definitely going to ask more questions on it.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Bob Doris
I appreciate your brevity.
When the Parliament passed the 2017 act, clear planning, reporting and scrutiny frameworks were established. For example, there are three delivery plans that go up to 2030, there is annual reporting to Parliament and this committee has an on-going role in relation to the act, as does Professor Sinclair. Dr Randolph, can you see a connection between that scrutiny framework and actions being taken? Are effective actions being taken because of the scrutiny framework? If so, it would be good to get an example of that.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Bob Doris
That is precisely why I was asking. Do you have anything to add, Mr Birt?
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Bob Doris
That is helpful. I note that I am not sweating it; I am thinking about whether, rather than tapering within universal credit for the Scottish child payment, there could be a roll-on, as Mr Dickie suggested. If there is no underlying issue, I am delighted to hear that, but I wanted to check on behalf of my constituents that there is no unintended consequence, which is the right question for the committee to ask.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Bob Doris
[Inaudible.]—Dr Randolph, that the modelling work exists in part because of the strategic scrutiny framework that the 2017 act put in place.
John Dickie, can you provide examples of the scrutiny framework leading to effective action to tackle child poverty? On the flipside of that, are there areas where additional scrutiny could result in greater actions? I suppose that it cuts both ways.
Social Justice and Social Security Committee
Meeting date: 28 November 2024
Bob Doris
It is right that you should challenge the Government and the Parliament: I have to ask about that, because you have mentioned it. We should move on to other things and not talk only about the Scottish child payment, but it was introduced at £10 a week about three years ago for children under six. It is now sitting at £26.70, which is an increase of about 250 per cent. You are rightly challenging that and asking for it to be higher. However, as we will talk about in relation to my next question, which is about investing in other areas, more can be done than just putting cash in families’ pockets; other investments can be made to tackle child poverty. Therefore, Mr Dickie, should we go further with the Scottish child payment or invest in other areas?