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 830 contributions
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Murdo Fraser
It seems to me that, if we ask local authorities to revisit procurement rules, for example, additional staff time will be required for that. That needs to be factored in along with the cost of drawing up the plans, which is all that the financial memorandum covers. It would be very helpful to the committee if you could have another look at that.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Murdo Fraser
Good morning. We have taken a lot of evidence on the guidance that the Scottish Government will issue. The legislation makes it clear that public bodies have to have due regard to the guidance when they are drawing up their plans. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has just reported on the bill. I do not know whether you have seen the report, but it recommends that, as the bill’s lead committee, we consider whether the proposed content of the guidance could be included in the bill to provide more clarity to those who will be subject to duties under it. What stage is the guidance at? What thought has been given to its content? Is there any prospect of the guidance being available before the bill completes its passage through the Parliament?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Murdo Fraser
That is helpful. I have one more question on that issue. There is a duty on public bodies to have “due regard” to the guidance, but there is no such duty on Scottish ministers. Why not?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 25 June 2025
Murdo Fraser
Exactly. That is why I am asking the question.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Murdo Fraser
That would mean that, if the Scottish ministers refused consent and the UK Government respected that, it would apply to product regulation UK-wide.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Murdo Fraser
Yes, but the purpose of the bill is about having standard regulations across the UK. What I am saying is that, if the Scottish ministers can stop changes in the devolved space, that will not just impact on Scotland. If the ambition is to align product regulation across the UK, that will surely have an impact across the UK.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Murdo Fraser
For example, you are saying that the Scottish ministers will have the power to withhold consent. How will such decisions be subject to scrutiny?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Murdo Fraser
I go back to Matt Pearce to answer my original question.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Murdo Fraser
Good morning, minister. Following on from the deputy convener’s questions, I want to understand the practical impact of the bill being passed. The context is clearly that, under the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020, the UK Government has the overriding objective of ensuring the free flow of products around the UK. You have told us that the consent of Scottish Government ministers would be required for any changes. How does that interact with the UK Government’s ambition to ensure that standards apply on the same basis around the UK?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 18 June 2025
Murdo Fraser
You are saying that it would not be appropriate to amend the bill so that it includes specific targets. However, we could oblige local authorities that have drawn up action plans to set a target themselves. That might be a way around the problem.