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 728 contributions
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Murdo Fraser
You said that the work on the portal is at an early stage. Do you have a likely timescale for its progression?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Murdo Fraser
I have a question on a slightly different subject. The procurement legislation has several thresholds: the £50,000 and £2 million thresholds; the threshold associated with the quick-quote system; and the £4 million threshold for community benefit requirements. Those thresholds have not changed since the act was introduced in 2014. Obviously, we have had inflation since that time. Is the Government giving any thought to whether those thresholds are still appropriate or whether they need to be reviewed?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 17 April 2024
Murdo Fraser
I have one more question. It is on the quick-quote system, which we have heard some positive things about from people who have used it. Do you know how many local authorities use quick quotes? Although I have not had a chance to verify the information, I was told that only three out of 32 local authorities use it. Do you have any knowledge of that?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Murdo Fraser
I should perhaps have put on the record earlier that, as is stated in my entry in the register of members’ interests, I am a member of the Law Society of Scotland, although I am not currently practising as a solicitor.
I have lodged a number of amendments that pick up issues that the committee identified in our stage 1 report. Some of those are intended as probing amendments, so I might not press them to the vote. Amendment 1 picks up the points that are covered in paragraphs 122 to 125 of our committee report and follows on from evidence that we heard from the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers about the time limits for serving bankruptcy petitions. We heard about the difficulties that those limits cause them, particularly in remote, rural and island communities—an issue that the minister has just identified.
My proposal, which is contained in amendment 1, is that the petition period be extended to 21 days. I have listened carefully to what the minister has had to say on the matter. I also note the commentary that Dr Alisdair MacPherson and Professor Donna McKenzie Skene of the University of Aberdeen have provided to the committee on the issue; they are more supportive of the minister’s approach, which is contained in his amendment 8, than they are of mine. Of course, I would always defer to legal experts on this issue. On that basis, I would be happy to support the minister’s approach and not move amendment 1.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Murdo Fraser
The issues that are highlighted in this group of amendments go to the heart of what was a focus of discussion in the committee at stage 1. We took evidence about how the mental health moratorium, which everyone agrees needs to happen, should be captured in legislation, and whether we should leave it to the Scottish Government to introduce regulations, as the bill provides, or whether we should have more specificity in the bill as to how that will be set up.
In that respect, I am grateful to Paul O’Kane for lodging his amendment 18, which sets out to put in the bill more detail on how the mental health moratorium would operate. That is a welcome amendment, and I am minded to support it. I appreciate that the Government takes a different view and that it would prefer to have those matters in regulations.
If the Government is not minded to support Paul O’Kane’s amendment, I nevertheless urge the minister to support the other amendments in the group. Daniel Johnson makes an important point about the need for regulations to be properly consulted on with relevant parties and the need to ensure that there is adequate scrutiny of the regulations before they come into law, given the importance of the matters that we are discussing. Colin Smyth made reasonable points about protections that could be put in place for creditors in relation to the operation of the moratorium.
I am minded to support all the amendments in the group, but I will be interested to hear what the minister has to say.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Murdo Fraser
I listened intently to the minister’s detailed explanation, and I think that he makes a reasonable case. I would be interested in hearing the views of ICAS, which originally raised the issue with the committee, on the minister’s proposed way forward. We have the opportunity to revisit the issue at stage 3, so I am happy not to press my amendments at this stage and to support the minister’s amendments. However, we reserve the right to come back at stage 3 with a further amendment, once we have had the opportunity to consult stakeholders on the matter.
Amendment 2, by agreement, withdrawn.
Amendment 3 not moved.
Amendments 9 and 10 moved—[Tom Arthur]—and agreed to.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Murdo Fraser
My amendments 4, 5 and 6 address points that were discussed in paragraphs 127 to 134 of the committee’s stage 1 report. Sections 6 and 7 of the bill would introduce a new duty of disclosure on the arrestee. The arrestee—the person who is in possession of the assets that belong to the debtor, which is usually a bank or a financial institution—would be required to tell the creditor when diligence has been unsuccessful. That is a new requirement that has been introduced. The arrestee must tell the creditor whether the arrestment has been successful within a specified time period of 21 days.
As we heard in committee evidence, the issue is that that would have significant resource implications for banks and other financial institutions. In its submission to the committee, the NatWest Group said that it would have to respond to approximately 70,000 arrestment requests every year, and that there would be no particularly useful purpose in telling creditors that those requests had been unsuccessful. Therefore, it seems to be an unduly onerous requirement to put upon financial institutions.
In amendments 4,5 and 6, I am proposing what is, in effect, a halfway house. They are not about entirely removing the obligation for disclosure. However, they try to qualify that requirement and ensure that it is less onerous for the financial institutions.
Amendment 4 relates to cases in which the arrestee must disclose information in relation to bank arrestments that have been unsuccessful. It provides that the arrestee need disclose information to the creditor only when the creditor requests that information, where it was not under summary warrant procedure, and that the information should be provided
“as soon as reasonably practicable”.
Amendment 5 amends section 7 of the bill to say that a person should respond only to a specific request that has been made.
Amendment 6 says that a person needs to respond only
“as soon as is reasonably practicable”
after the request has been received, rather than within 21 days.
To me, that strikes a reasonable balance. The bill proposes a new onerous requirement on arrestees to report. The costs of doing that may well be significant; I do not know whether the minister can enlighten us on the Government’s assessment of what the additional cost will be. My amendments are not about removing the requirement altogether. Rather, they qualify it and try to strike a balance between the interests of the creditor and the interests of the arrestee. It seems to me to be a reasonable set of proposals.
11:15Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 20 March 2024
Murdo Fraser
Amendments 2 and 3 deal with another issue that the committee identified in its stage 1 report: a situation when a debtor cannot be traced or is found to be unco-operative and, therefore, a trustee seeks to be discharged from their responsibility. Evidence on the issue was given to the committee by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, which is keen for a change in the law to avoid situations in which, in effect, a trustee ends up being in place in perpetuity—which would come at a cost to the trustee, who might inevitably be a professional person or body—because there is no avenue for an insolvency practitioner to get a discharge. The purpose of amendments 2 and 3 is to address that point by allowing trustees in such a situation to be granted the right of discharge, with particular safeguards added.
The minister also has amendments in the group, as was the case in the previous group, so I shall listen with interest to what he has to say.
In the meantime, I am happy to move amendment 2.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Murdo Fraser
I will come to Mary Mitchell in a minute—I notice that you were nodding away there. Gillian, how would you mark progress in this area, noting the changes that we have seen in the legislation? I presume that there is still work to be done, but do you think that you are making good progress?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Murdo Fraser
Thank you.
10:15