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 1690 contributions
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 24 June 2025
Michelle Thomson
Do you think that that is slightly optimistic, given that most people will have personal devices as well? If what you are describing is advisory, there is nothing to stop them using their personal devices to carry on transacting Government business.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 24 June 2025
Michelle Thomson
Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Following up on public sector reform, what percentage of the 9,000-plus staff that you have are either managers or team leaders?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 24 June 2025
Michelle Thomson
That is quite out of sync with what best industry standards are. I appreciate that you are new in post, but, going back to an earlier discussion that you had with the convener, I will always press for specific plans to be put in place along with the associated measures—otherwise, how will we know that they are successful? You can be sure that I look forward to bringing that up again when you next appear in front of us.
Let us move on to mobile messaging apps, which you referenced in your opening statement. How will you ensure that WhatsApp, Signal or other apps are not used for Government business by staff or by ministers themselves on their personal devices?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 24 June 2025
Michelle Thomson
My firm advice to you would be to look afresh at that. Frankly, it is no justification, under law, for you to say, “Ah, well, that is what everybody else was doing.” The Supreme Court judgment was compellingly clear. There is the threat of two further potential legal actions and my firm advice to you, permanent secretary, would be to get on it, because, from a public sector point of view, you are, ultimately, the accountable officer who is responsible for ensuring that the Scottish Government upholds the law. Regardless of your view on the matter, I personally think that it is a very poor look that, 10 weeks after the judgment, we have not done anything about it.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 24 June 2025
Michelle Thomson
Even though—this is in the public domain—Baroness Falkner is saying that you “should not wait for” the EHRC’s guidance?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Michelle Thomson
Good morning—I thank the witnesses for joining us. We had quite a protracted discussion with the earlier panel on the financing needed to enable the good work and good outcomes that we want to see arising from the bill. I am aware that many of the ideas that have been discussed are reserved, and I am also aware that the Scottish Government has a fixed budget. That affects not only what we choose to spend the money on but the way in which we spend it and our appetite for risk.
I am interested in your views on the extent to which funding mechanisms have been considered—even by yourselves—and where you see the opportunities within the limitations that I have set out. Gail Macgregor, do you want to go first?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Michelle Thomson
What consideration have you given to the potential for divergence from EU regulation by the UK Government against a principled approach and agreement of this Parliament, wherever possible, to align? Have you considered practical examples of where that might occur?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Michelle Thomson
In areas where the UK Government might seek to diverge, do you think that you are covered by now having the requirement that it must seek consent from Scottish ministers?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Michelle Thomson
This is a very general question, and there will be lots of different answers across the 32 local councils. In general terms, given the chronic power restrictions on financing, how much of an entrepreneurial bent do you think councils have? To derive answers in community wealth building, we will need people to think creatively because of the complexity and challenges. What is your general sense of that—by appetite, capacity and capability?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Michelle Thomson
Morven Taylor, I am aware you have not had a chance to come in yet. Would you like to come in on this, briefly? I sense that I have already overrun my time.