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 1482 contributions
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Michelle Thomson
Thank you.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Michelle Thomson
I will try to be brief. I have a couple of questions. In your submission, you mention wider adoption of shared services and correctly note that that will need increased resources and time to take effect. It also needs appetite. Can you help me to understand the standard functions that are normally part of shared services—that is, finance, HR and IT? Are there any genuinely shared services across all 32 local councils?
17:30Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Michelle Thomson
I get why that is the case. Have there been terms of reference for the review?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Michelle Thomson
I have seen the document that was published in May.
To go back to your point, Kirsty Flanagan, sometimes we see facilities management, for example, being part of a shared services function. I accept what you said about the disparate geography of Argyll and Bute, but you have also pointed out that there is a lack of appetite across councils in respect of replicated functions—for example, finance directors, IT, HR and the specialisms. In any other commercial walk of life—I spent some time in commerce in a previous life—there is no way that there would be duplicated functions across the board. Hence my comment about appetite. On the one hand, councils complain about not having any money; on the other hand, it is clear that that is an area that should be looked at, as there are duplicated functions across 32 councils.
That is the point that I am trying to make, although I accept that there is the time issue and a cost.
I want to ask Kirsty Flanagan one more question. It is a bit of a technical question, so I hope that we can deal with it quite quickly.
You made a point in the submission about capital accounting. I know that that has been rumbling about for some time. Obviously, there are concerns about the planned review, but what was the driver for the concern? That issue has been raised a number of times, and something is now being done about it—it is being looked at. Surely a potential outcome is a positive one. I want to understand where your concerns are coming from and the assumption that the result could end up less favourable for councils.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Michelle Thomson
I will not labour the point, because I am conscious of the time; however, I am just not clear why you think that that will automatically happen. That is what I am querying.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Michelle Thomson
I go back to your point about the immediacy of the crises from which we are lurching. We have had several: we have had Brexit and Covid and we have a cost of living crisis. In addition, there are the up-front costs, which you clearly pointed out, before we get the benefits—if they are financial benefits. Does that work to inhibit structural change? Does short-termism always win the day, or is the possibility that it wins the day increased?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Michelle Thomson
Good afternoon. Thank you for coming along today.
I will ask the Auditor General a question first. In your submission, you said that the resource spending review
“notes that there are ... 129 public bodies in Scotland”.
You quite coyly comment that
“structural reform ... can take time to achieve and generate short-term costs.”
I also note your point about service delivery and outcomes.
With regard to the typical time-cost quality of any change, you have not given any indication of the potential for cost savings. From an audit perspective, how does our having 129 public bodies compare with the situation in other countries? I realise that this is a difficult question, and I accept what you said earlier, but, by head of population or some other appropriate measure, do we have far too many public bodies, and should we have fewer?
16:00Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Michelle Thomson
Everybody is looking at you, Paul.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Michelle Thomson
Sorry to interrupt. I understand that, but I am trying to understand the basis for your concern that that might change. Surely there could also be potential for a positive outcome. The overarching review has been triggered by your lack of fiscal flexibilities. From your submission, I am not clear why you are concerned or what evidence you are offering to back up that concern. Has there been any indication from the Government that that is the intended way to go? I am not clear about that.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 September 2022
Michelle Thomson
That would be helpful, and I know that you will carefully qualify any data that you provide.
Are you aware of any overlap of outcomes that might lend themselves to consideration for streamlining from an audit perspective? Perhaps I should ask when you last audited the 129 bodies’ effectiveness across the board.