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 MSPs and committees will automatically update to show only the MSPs and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of MSPs and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of MSPs 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 1489 contributions
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Michelle Thomson
Following on from that, will there be a specific measurement outcome that references gender equality? Another approach would be for it to cut through all your outcomes, but will there be specific measures?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Michelle Thomson
I will look forward to following that up. My last question on that subject—I have another question in a different area—is about conditionality. Can you see a set of circumstances in which you would advise the Scottish Government to introduce conditionality in relation to gender parity? It is often hard measures and real financial outcomes that make the difference. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Michelle Thomson
I have a completely different question on financing. Everybody is well aware of the significant challenges in that regard, particularly given that the Scottish Government has a fixed budget. There are even challenges around financing in the private sector, and risk appetites change where there is a shortage of resources.
I am well aware of the challenge that you face, and you have made it clear how ambitious the 2045 target is. However, what are your current reflections on the challenges, specifically to do with how the Scottish Government will be able to finance things or any other areas you see across the piece? Retrofitting might be an example that you will pull out.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 23 November 2022
Michelle Thomson
I feel that that is a massive area. I will not labour it, because I know that other committee members have questions. Thank you.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Michelle Thomson
I agree with everything that you have said, but my question was: what assessment have you made of the economic barriers that your key stakeholders—employees, employers and the Scottish Government—face? I agree that fair work is enmeshed in economic choices. However, even today, we have talked about sick pay and zero-hours contracts, which, of course, come under employment law. We have not touched much on the issue of the gig economy generally. I am trying to work out what assessment you have made of the economic blockers and barriers.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Michelle Thomson
I will raise a point that is more about finance. On redistribution, have you come up with ideas about where you would take money from? When you operate with a fixed budget, giving money to one thing means taking money from somewhere else. Have you looked at that from the point of view of fair work? Where would you take it from?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 16 November 2022
Michelle Thomson
Good morning, everybody. I will ask a question of you, Mary, but pass it on if you want to. Obviously, we are the fair work committee, but we are also the economy committee, and the challenges that we have at the moment are well reported. Everyone will watch with interest to see what the UK budget means and what flows through in implications for the Scottish Government and the wider economic environment. With that in mind, can you put on the record what you see as the key economic barriers to progressing fair work for your key stakeholders—that is, employees, employers and the Scottish Government?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 9 November 2022
Michelle Thomson
It might be picked up by other members, but it is also clearly an area of interest in relation to creating a future.
I will ask an open question about green free ports. What are you able to tell us about the current status and timelines?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 9 November 2022
Michelle Thomson
That is absolutely understandable, because of all the changes at the UK Government level.
In terms of specific incentives, are you able to give any more flavour at a generic level of some of the themes or, again, is that all wrapped up under your future announcements?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 9 November 2022
Michelle Thomson
You can be sure that I will continue to ask about that.