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 977 contributions
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Katy Clark
It has been raised with us, which is why we are asking for a response. I appreciate that.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Katy Clark
You will have seen the representations that have been made to the committee, which vary, but there are calls for a review of the rules of the 1907 act. Are you looking at those representations? I appreciate your point that that act is broader than the issues that are in the scope of the bill, but are you looking at the wider issues that have been raised by a number of stakeholders—individuals and firms of solicitors—that have responded to the committee?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Katy Clark
Would you be happy to write to the committee with the outcome of those deliberations?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Katy Clark
So you would fall back on current practice when it comes to what “within a reasonable period” means.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Katy Clark
So you are satisfied that there will not be litigation.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Katy Clark
What is your view on the point that was put to the committee that vagueness in the bill’s language in some places, such as the use in section 5 of the term “within a reasonable period”, will lead to litigation, and that it should be replaced with definite and measurable—although less flexible—timescales such as 30 days? What is your view on that vagueness?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Katy Clark
Are you satisfied that oral notice is workable? You have given it thought and you believe that it is workable.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Katy Clark
As you know, a range of representations have been made to us. What is your view of the arguments that have been made to the committee that criticise the proposal to allow tenants to give notice orally when a lease has a term of less than one year?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Katy Clark
Thank you—that is very helpful.
What is your view on the argument that the provisions on giving notice in the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1907 should be reviewed more generally and potentially repealed? Have you considered that?
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 20 May 2025
Katy Clark
Okay—thank you.