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 740 contributions
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 5 June 2024
Murdo Fraser
Good morning, minister. In addition to the correspondence from the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, to which Colin Smyth referred, the Scottish Beer and Pub Association has written to the committee, raising a number of concerns. As you will be aware, it did not support the legislation in the first place. Notwithstanding that, it has a number of detailed issues to raise in relation to the regulations that have been made. They include the lack of definition of what a tenant is. The Scottish Beer and Pub Association says that that does not include franchise agreements, managed operator agreements or tenancies at will. There is a lack of clarity there.
The association also has concerns about the onerous information requirements of regulation 10 of the Scottish Pubs Code Regulations 2024. It has further concerns in relation to regulation 12 and the amount of information that is required on rent assessments, which it says is too onerous.
The association has concerns around the guest beer provision, as it is unclear how eligibility could confidently be determined. It also has concerns around the lack of clarity on the investment waiver in relation to the charging of market rent only.
There is quite a lot of detail in that, as you will understand. I suppose that, given that you are doing further work on the various provisions, we are looking for an assurance that you will consider those points as part of that.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 4 June 2024
Murdo Fraser
Were you surprised when—I think this was three weeks ago—an existing commissioner told us that, despite having produced seven different reports, he had not been in front of a committee more than once?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 29 May 2024
Murdo Fraser
We could debate the HMRC figures all morning, I am sure. You will recognise that they pre-date the most recent increases in income tax. We need to see what the impact of those will be, which will come through in the figures, in due course.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 29 May 2024
Murdo Fraser
With respect, it is not about the nature of the engagement. Again, there is a criticism from the business community, which says, “Yes, there is an open door, we have lots of good conversations, but we have the conversation and nothing changes”. It wants to see things actually change.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 29 May 2024
Murdo Fraser
Good morning, cabinet secretary. I want to ask a couple of questions about the new deal for business, which you referred to.
Since you were appointed, and, indeed, since Mr Swinney was appointed as First Minister, the language has been about prioritising economic growth. This time last year, when the previous First Minister was appointed and the new deal for business was established, that new deal was very much welcomed by the business community. However, it is fair to say that there has been disappointment at the lack of delivery from it.
I am interested to know what your plans are. Will you continue with the new deal for business? What is your assessment of the output from it so far?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 29 May 2024
Murdo Fraser
As you have referenced finance, let me ask you about tax. The committee has heard a lot from businesses about the impact of income tax differentials. In today’s Herald, Stuart Patrick from Glasgow Chamber of Commerce referenced the “Scottish weighting”—again, that is something that we have heard about—whereby businesses in Scotland now have to pay a premium to try to attract higher earners here because of the tax differential.
When we went to Glasgow Prestwick airport last month, Ryanair told us that it was looking to expand its operations at Prestwick but the barrier was that it could not persuade air mechanics to move from other parts of the UK to Scotland. With their earnings level—they earn a basic of £77,000—the tax differential was actively preventing that from happening. That is a barrier to economic growth. You are on the record as saying that you are concerned about continually increasing taxes. Do you recognise that differential tax is currently holding back the expansion of the economy?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 29 May 2024
Murdo Fraser
We might be in danger of agreeing, because you have effectively said that, although there has been a lot of discussion, businesses want to see some delivery. Can I press you a bit more on that point? Business concerns—which the committee hears all the time—are around rates relief and the income tax differential; regulation issues, such as the deposit return scheme and the regulation of short-term lets; issues around the visitor levy, which we discussed yesterday in Parliament; restrictions on wood-burning stoves, which I know the Government is revisiting and you have an interest in; issues around infrastructure, such as the A9; and questions around the ferries. The question that people want to hear answered is: what will change?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 29 May 2024
Murdo Fraser
The figures also show that we have lost 1,000 of the highest earners in the same period, which has a major impact.
I will ask you one more question. You have talked a lot about things changing. I appreciate that you are in a purdah period, but when will we see changes? What is the timeframe for things to be different?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 22 May 2024
Murdo Fraser
Good morning, panel. I want to ask about consistency of approach across Scotland. Are we seeing a postcode lottery, or is there some degree of consistency? If there is no consistency, what more could the Scottish Government do to try to promote best practice?
I see that you are smiling, Charlotte, so I will start with you.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 22 May 2024
Murdo Fraser
Thank you—that was very helpful. Anne-Marie, do you want to add anything?