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 5056 contributions
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Ariane Burgess
Thank you for that response.
You mentioned the Verity house agreement and the fact that the fiscal arrangement is only a part of it and that council tax is only a part of the fiscal arrangement. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the impact on trust. Are you confident that trust can be maintained between local government and national Government?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Ariane Burgess
We move on to the theme of reasons for the council tax freeze, and I will bring in Stephanie Callaghan, who joins us online.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Ariane Burgess
I wonder about the funding disparities that might be caused by some local authorities taking up the levy and others not doing so. What are your thoughts on that?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Ariane Burgess
I see. Again, I am just trying to get this clear. You would like to see the bill have the option for a flat rate or a percentage rate, and allow councils to choose whichever one they want to pick up and consult on.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Ariane Burgess
It is great that you are at least having a conversation about a unified user experience in that way.
I bring in Stephanie Callaghan, who joins us online.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Ariane Burgess
Thank you for that. It is helpful for us to hear that. I now come to Mark Griffin, who is also attending online.
09:45Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Ariane Burgess
Thank you for that helpful opening statement. It is good to hear that you have been listening to a variety of views through the process.
I will ask a number of questions about the general aims of the bill. Over the time that we have been taking evidence, we have heard from representatives of accommodation providers that the bill gives the impression that Scotland has a problem with tourism and that there might be a risk of reputational damage. In addition, concerns have been voiced about the impact on Scotland’s competitiveness. What are your thoughts on those two perspectives?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Ariane Burgess
It is good that you have highlighted that local authority authorities will not just do that; they will be required to carry out a consultation with stakeholders.
My third question is about the concerns that have been raised that the visitor levy will, effectively, be a tax on accommodation providers rather than a tax on visitors. What are your thoughts on that?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Ariane Burgess
Thanks for that response. I hear your point about streamlining things for business. That takes me back to our evidence from local authorities in which we heard how, of the two authorities that were most impacted by tourism, Edinburgh wants a percentage rate, while Highland is asking not only for a flat rate but for the ability to bring in a tiered system. It is interesting that we are not getting a consistent picture across local authorities. There is local need to consider, and I think that both authorities are quite far down the line in the work that they have done and in their keenness to bring the levy in. It is important to consider those perspectives, but I take the point that a digital platform that will work will take time to create and implement.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 14 November 2023
Ariane Burgess
It is good to hear your thoughts on that. To continue on the theme of how revenues will be spent, I bring in Stephanie Callaghan, who joins us online.