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 1499 contributions
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 12 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
I have indicated some of my concerns about the use of green freeports for money laundering and other nefarious activities. I will support the motion, with the proviso that I will look for a strenuous querying of the UK Government over its pretty appalling record in stopping money laundering. I recognise, yet again, the constraints within which the Scottish Government must operate. That is a function of devolution.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 12 September 2023
Michelle Thomson
All of that is pretty standard, and having it all in place does not stop considerable money laundering and fraud—it is an epidemic—in the UK economy, overseen by the UK Government. I fully accept that most such powers are reserved, but Ross Greer made the important point that we have two choices—we can say, “That’s not very good,” or we can start to rattle the cage and use the powers that we have, which could absolutely disallow any offshore company or structure.
10:30Another point that has a bearing is that Scottish limited partnerships are well known for money laundering—they were at the root of the bombing in Beirut, and money that was being funnelled through them nearly brought down the entire Moldovan economy. They are well known and well understood.
Scottish limited partnerships affect our global brand name. If you have not had discussions with the UK Government, I ask you to have them and then return to the committee to set out exactly what assurances you have had and where you dispute points. This is our global brand, which is why I care passionately about it.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
As a follow-on, I suggest that one of the critical enablers for the utilisation of AI is sound collection of data. I fully accept what you say about the ethical use of such data, but how aware are you, as a council, of its being an enabler? You mentioned customer services, but that is almost looking at things the wrong way round. After all, the whole point of AI, which is driven by process, is that it blows up and breaks asunder a lot of the functions that we have already developed. How actively focused are you on collecting data as a minimum, given the massive processing power that AI can utilise off the back of that?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
Are you taking active steps to develop a strategy—or even to conduct the research that will help frame such a strategy? Again, I am thinking specifically about how it might be utilised in public sector reform, which is all future focused. Where are you in developing your knowledge as a council?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
Okay. Thank you.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
I will bring in Iain Tough and then Malcolm Burr, and then I have a follow-up question.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
Finally, I have a general question for all of you. What public sector reform guidance are you receiving from the Scottish Government to ensure that you include it? Are you grasping a sense of urgency from the Scottish Government that it is something that you need to look at? Have any conversations taken place?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
Malcolm, I understand and appreciate that the scale of this will be markedly different for you.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
Is that the same for all of you?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 27 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
Yes.