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
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
I will move on. I understand that the bank is still in a loss-making position—we know where you are in your journey. However, I found myself thinking about what will happen to profits when the bank starts to make them. My view is that it is very important that the bank is able to reinvest profits so that you can get to the scale that will effect change, but I know that the Scottish Government claws back money from the likes of Registers of Scotland and enterprise agencies. Have you considered what the position would be with the investment bank?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 21 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
I look forward to hearing more about that.
My last wee point leads on from that and is about impact. One of the points that I picked up from the recent report by the bank and the Good Economy, “Unlocking the potential of impact investing in Scotland”, was the lack of identity within the impact investment community in Scotland. The report makes various points about that. How do you see your role in establishing a proper impact investment community, particularly given Scotland’s strong hinterland in that regard, which we might attribute to our history of ESG investment?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
Sorry to interrupt but, if it is about complexity, what specific complexities are there for a council finance director function that merits having 32 of them? I can see how, according to a framework principle, every council will have different partners and different methods of payment, but the function itself is duplicated, and I do not understand why we need 32 of them.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
Good morning. This has been a very interesting discussion, and I think that you have fairly reflected the complexity of the matter at hand. I agree with the convener that your submission is excellent.
I have a question, however. I still do not understand why we do not have a shared services centre and why we need 32 different finance directorates and human resources departments across councils. I suppose that I would throw in legal services, too.
I can understand the complexities in creating shared functions in digital and estates, Argyll and Bute being a good example, and I could also mention procurement. However, the financial element in particular is fundamentally about accounting for money in, money out. My question to both of you, therefore, is: why have you not been considering creating a shared services centre for that as a simple way of bringing about public sector reform?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
I agree. I read that bit of your submission with interest. I agree with you that, clearly, a lot of work has been done on shared services, but I am specifically asking why the finance function is replicated across 32 councils. In some respects, the work that you have done is arguably more complex than creating a shared services centre. I do not understand why that has not been considered. Even if you think that it is not within your gift to consider that, do you think that it is something that should be mandated by the Government?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
I have two points on that to finish off.
On HR, you have actually made an argument for a centralised function in that we have 32 different sets of terms and conditions, particularly where many particular role types are broadly similar. There are large global companies with a footprint in a multitude of different countries that have a shared services centre. I therefore struggle to see how on earth we cannot have that across 32 different councils.
Critically, holding the data set in one area also gives us greater insights into making improvements.
I will ask my final question, which I know that Ms Watters may want to come in on as well. If it is not something that you have considered, is it because you have not really thought about it, or should it be mandated? I will hear your last point before I bring in Ms Watters.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
I thank the witnesses for attending today. You have mentioned this already, but I want to dig a wee bit deeper into your expedite service. I note for the record that the success rate for approvals for the service was, in 2020-21, 52 per cent and, in 2021-22, 49 per cent, with a jump in 2022-23 to 77 per cent, which is obviously good. I want to explore the reasons for that jump. Was it the result of more purchasing power—or, if you like, volume throughput? It would also be useful to understand whether you have changed the criteria for expediting cases.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
It is interesting to hear that you exercise judgment in those cases. A couple of the examples that you give do not appear to fit into the three criteria that you set out—I am not having a pop; you are clearly exercising judgment. Is it fair to say that, at this point, the criteria for expedition are still developing as you get more data on and understanding of particular issues?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
Do you have any data that will allow you to say whether the expedition process being more fully realised will eventually feed into your ability to start to target the backlog? You have mentioned that some are historical cases that people are saying you need to crack on with. Have you explored that link?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 14 June 2023
Michelle Thomson
You will have seen the letter from Mr Keith Robertson, which I will have to refer to, as he refers to me and the question that I asked last time. I will just put it on the record. I said:
“For the record, then, you are saying that if solicitors who lodged cases in 2017 come to you with a request to expedite, because of the time that they have already taken, you will agree to that.”—[Official Report, Economy and Fair Work Committee, 7 September 2022; c 18.]
The answer that you gave to that was, “Yes—100 per cent.” However, Mr Robertson asserts:
“This is quite simply untrue. Length of time since submission is not and never has been accepted by RoS as grounds for expedition.”
Can you clear that up? Is he correct or incorrect? What exactly is the position?