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 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.
Displaying 2341 contributions
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Willie Coffey
Thanks. I have a question on the ageing workforce, which is probably more for Katie Hagmann, but I would appreciate any comments from Joe FitzPatrick as well. We heard last week that there is an ageing workforce in local government, and we are seeing people retiring earlier. I asked how we can have both things at the same time, and colleagues gave a perfectly good explanation of why that happens. Do we accept and understand that? What are we trying to do to address it?
I looked at the Withers recommendations on skills. Is the skills delivery landscape an area where we can deploy some of the report’s recommendations to help us? If the ageing profile in local government continues to drift upwards, we will probably need to start thinking about what we do about that at the sharper end—the earlier end, the apprentice end—with new starts and the type of recruitment and skills development that Withers talked about. Can you say a few words about that?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Willie Coffey
Good morning, minister, Councillor Hagmann and colleagues. Will you say a little bit more about how the fiscal framework will provide the kind of flexibility that everyone is seeking and talking about? We were told by colleagues at last week’s meeting that it is still felt that there is a lack of flexibility in how local authorities apportion their funding to various duties. Does that mean that the dreaded ring fencing is at an end and is being replaced with the flexible arrangement that, collectively, we will somehow agree to?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Willie Coffey
That is encouraging.
The second part of my question is about hard cash on the table. The pre-budget finance circular that was issued shows a real-terms increase of 1.3 per cent and an increase of 4.3 per cent over the past 10 years. In your opening remarks, you mentioned that £1.5 billion extra in cash terms is to be provided between now and 2027-28, but our colleagues—especially those from whom we heard last week—continue to remind us that, in their view, we still need about £1 billion more to deliver the level of service that COSLA would expect local authorities to deliver for us on our behalf. There is quite a gap there, as I am sure you realise. Will you address that issue and give us your view on where we are in that long-running debate about cash on the table?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 26 September 2023
Willie Coffey
Thank you. Councillor Hagmann, I invite you to offer your perspective on the issue of cash on the table. Is it enough? How much more do we need? How do we get there?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Willie Coffey
But do you get why I am saying this to you? If you do not comply, there is no public assurance, which, surely, is a grave matter. I know that getting there is a difficult and complex process, but your not being able to give the public assurance on the matters on which we seek that assurance has to be regarded as a grave matter.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Willie Coffey
Okay, I will leave that point there.
One of the things that you did not mention was the amount of money that you have spent on consultant fees—I think that it is now £600,000. Is the public getting value for money from that exercise and is it helping you to understand what that bar of audit satisfaction, which was mentioned earlier, is? Is the exercise allowing you to get there? If you come back next year, that absolutely has to be sorted. Surely you accept that.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Willie Coffey
Is the Government’s acceptance of the committee's other recommendation about the publication of written authorities on the Government’s website a commitment to publishing not only that written authority but any that may have occurred in the past? The committee is interested in seeing any examples of such written authorisations that have been sought and given.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Willie Coffey
I think that the committee was keen for that to be broadened so that we could see any governmental written authorities that have been given in the past. Is that part of what you might consider doing?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Willie Coffey
Thank you for that. I have a slightly broader question. From the outset of the committee’s work on its ferries investigation, it has been clear to me that the key problems were probably built in from the start of the project, and you have mentioned that in your comments to the committee. Constantly changing the design specifications as the ships were built was a recipe for the cost and time overruns that we have seen.
If we look at the performance of all Governments, past and present, we see a litany of public procurement cost overruns. The public can see that, too. What is your perspective on why some—not all—public projects go wrong? Do you agree that it is absolutely vital that projects are planned carefully at the outset and that recognised quality management standards and processes are deployed, so that all projects—whether they are construction projects, information technology projects or anything else—have a fair chance of being completed on time and on budget? Can you assure the committee that that approach will be taken from now on with any procurement projects that the Government might commission?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 21 September 2023
Willie Coffey
John Paterson, you covered a lot of ground in your opening statement. I have been a member of the Public Audit Committee and its predecessor committees for more years than I can remember, and I have dealt with section 22 and section 23 reports and so on from Audit Scotland.
I have to say that the response that you are giving to the committee does not appear to be consistent with your accepting the recommendations in full. You said that you do, but I do not get that impression from some of your responses. You said that you do not “share the gravity” of the situation and that the potential for the misapplication of public funds is “negligible”. Do you accept that you are absolutely required to comply with the Treasury’s guidance on this? If you do not do that, where does public assurance come from?