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 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and committees will automatically update to show only the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 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 3264 contributions
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Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of NHS Forth Valleyâ€
Meeting date: 29 February 2024
Richard Leonard
My question is: why did it take so long? Concerns about governance were flagged up in May 2022. Why did it take until January the following year for a review of governance arrangements to be established? Why did it take another eight months before the conclusions were considered by the board?
Public Audit Committee
Administration of Scottish Income Tax 2022-23
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Richard Leonard
Thank you very much, indeed. The committee will be particularly interested in looking at the methodological approaches and the implications of greater divergence between the income tax systems of Scotland and the rest of the UK. Perhaps I could begin by putting an important question to you.
On the one hand, you say that HMRC estimates are reasonable, but, in paragraph 1.21 of the NAO report, you identify areas of methodology in which there is a degree of what we could call woolliness. You say:
“HMRC does not fully understand the causes of the over-estimate in 2021-22 and any socioeconomic factors contributing to the over-estimate may be different in 2022-23.â€
You say that there is a big reliance on sample data in the revenue estimates and that pay as you earn and self-assessment amounts that are apportioned to Scotland do
“not reflect the differing proportions of each type of taxpayer between Scotland and the rest of the UK.â€
I wrote to you last year about that, and I might return to it.
You say that PAYE assessments include areas that are not subject to Scottish income tax variation, such as dividend payments, savings interest and so on, and you note that assumptions are the basis of HMRC’s estimates of PAYE liabilities. Those are all holes in the methodology that you have identified. How does that provide you with the comfort to be able to say that what we have before us is reasonable?
Public Audit Committee
Administration of Scottish Income Tax 2022-23
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Richard Leonard
We have made the point in previous years that it is important for parliamentarians to understand what is going on out there, because, in the end, that guides policy decisions and decisions around the Scottish budget and where income tax is set. That is why we are especially interested. I would be interested to hear from you about what you would do differently if you were in the shoes of HMRC.
Public Audit Committee
Administration of Scottish Income Tax 2022-23
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Richard Leonard
To conclude that part of our questioning, are you saying that there is no figure or estimate for tax evasion or avoidance in Scotland?
Public Audit Committee
Administration of Scottish Income Tax 2022-23
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Richard Leonard
Thank you. That is helpful.
I will move things along by bringing in Graham Simpson, who joins us remotely.
Public Audit Committee
Administration of Scottish Income Tax 2022-23
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Richard Leonard
I will move things swiftly along and invite Willie Coffey to ask some questions.
Public Audit Committee
Administration of Scottish Income Tax 2022-23
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Richard Leonard
I have a very quick question, which relates to this thing about third-party data checks to get assurance. The report says:
“1.4 million records (27.0% of records analysed) could not be corroborated by comparison with the third-party data.â€
That seems to me to be quite a high number. Do you have any concerns about that, Mr Davies?
Public Audit Committee
Interests
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Richard Leonard
Good morning. I welcome everyone to the sixth meeting in 2024 of the Public Audit Committee.
Before I turn to the agenda, I place on record my thanks for the contribution that has been made to the committee by Sharon Dowey, who stepped down last week as deputy convener of the Public Audit Committee. She was a highly valued member of the team, and I valued her greatly as deputy convener.
Under the first item on the agenda, I welcome Jamie Greene and invite him to declare any relevant interests.
Public Audit Committee
Deputy Convener
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Richard Leonard
Under the second item, the committee must agree a new deputy convener. The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party are eligible to be chosen as deputy convener of the Public Audit Committee, and I understand that the party has nominated Jamie Greene for the role. Do members agree to the nomination of Jamie Greene as deputy convener?
Members indicated agreement.
Public Audit Committee
Deputy Convener
Meeting date: 22 February 2024
Richard Leonard
Thank you very much. I congratulate you on your appointment, Jamie. I look forward very much to working with you.
