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 1018 contributions
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 28 October 2025
Craig Hoy
Those were my more general questions. I have two specific questions—one for each of you. Professor Dahlström, the remuneration that those who chair inquiries receive has been referred to. In Scotland, there is a concern that some lawyers and chairs have received significant amounts of public money for their involvement in inquiries. I noted that, in Sweden, the chair or those who lead inquiries can receive either a lump sum or a monthly fee. Our concern about a monthly fee is that, potentially, someone could run down the clock on that. What is the mechanism for determining how those who lead inquiries are paid?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 28 October 2025
Craig Hoy
Dr Prasser, your book has a chapter by Dr Anita Mackay on what is happening in Victoria, which offers insight for other jurisdictions. That identifies that a formal mechanism is in place to monitor the implementation of recommendations in the state of Victoria. Could you elaborate on that? How effective is that mechanism and what are the specific mechanics?
10:30Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 28 October 2025
Craig Hoy
Dr Prasser, I note that the state of Victoria has introduced a formal mechanism that is intended to ensure that recommendations are implemented. Do you have any insight into how effective that mechanism is and how it is formulated?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Craig Hoy
Does remedying that need legislative intervention?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Craig Hoy
I recently completed an extension on my home, and I advise anybody who is watching not to do that while you are living in the property. The building standards team is coming round today and, hopefully, I will get a completion certificate. All the way through, I have taken photographs and worked with my architect and builder.
Was there a wholesale failure of the building standards process when the buildings were being built? If you are saying that the material that is on the outside of them is just one part of a whole series of unfortunate issues with a lot of those properties, where is the onus on the building standards system to prevent buildings being built in such a deficient way?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Craig Hoy
The Scottish Government is raising more than ever through land and buildings transaction tax, and now we have the additional dwelling supplement, so some taxes in Scotland are specifically about property. Presumably, there could be hypothecation through such a mechanism—which would mean that, effectively, those who interface with the housing market in Scotland are taxed, rather than, necessarily, a first-time purchaser who has had no connection with the remediation work that was required.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Craig Hoy
It would argue that it is doing so at present. Submissions from Homes for Scotland and others show that, when it comes to the total amounts that they are paying in, what they might be required to put into the levy is significantly less than what they might actively be paying now.
My last point is on the definition of “rural”. There is an exemption for island properties. There seems to be a case for rural properties, too. I do not know whether either of you has a view as to how we might help the Government to get to a definition of “rural” in order to be able to advocate for an exemption—which you highlight as being an issue in relation to rural properties, particularly when it comes to affordability, given that less development might happen in rural areas. I think that you identified that, Mr Henderson, because of the lower margins in developing in rural areas.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Craig Hoy
Fine. Mr Henderson, different submissions to the committee have taken different positions on the fairness, equity and proportionality of such a scheme, given that it seems to be falling on a relatively small number of shoulders. However, at the end of the day, it will probably be house buyers who will pay some of the remediation costs for prior builds.
You have said that you recognise that there are some issues with proportionality, and you mention the case of leaseholders. Given that there is a significant variation of opinion in the range of submissions that we have had, if it is to be a permanent part of the landscape, as you identify, would the best way to deal with it be through general taxation rather than a specific tax that falls only on a certain section of the construction industry?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Craig Hoy
I said to Liz Smith that, under the Scottish Government’s current definition, Gilmerton, on the fringes of Edinburgh, is a rural area, although it is mostly under concrete now.
You are both very close to the industry. You said that you think that this levy, or tax, depending on how you look at it, will probably have to remain in some form and function into the future. What is potentially the next cladding scandal that we should be alert to at the moment? Is there something that the industry is already looking at and getting a bit concerned about—potentially in relation to safety, Mr Henderson?
10:00Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 7 October 2025
Craig Hoy
Good morning. Mr Drummond, in your submission, you mentioned what you might find when you remove the cladding, and you called it “known unknowns”. At this point in time, on roughly what percentage of buildings that have cladding that needs to be remediated do you anticipate that you would find that further works need to be undertaken—for safety or wind and water tightness, for example?