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
SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 15 May 2025
Murdo Fraser
Is that a helpful exchange?
SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 15 May 2025
Murdo Fraser
Good morning. The committee is interested in trying to understand the purpose of commissioners and the added value that they bring. Indeed, Mr Carlaw, you alluded to that in what you have just said. It is clear from the Finance and Public Administration Committee’s report and the evidence that we have taken that Scotland is not an undergoverned country; after all, we have 129 MSPs, 57 MPs and nearly 30 ministers and law officers.
Last week, I asked the Minister for Public Finance what would concern the Scottish Government the most—a critical report from a commissioner, a critical report from a cross-party parliamentary committee, or Opposition MSPs, or indeed MSPs from its own party, standing up and criticising it? I appreciate that the corporate body might not have a particular view on that question, but I am interested in knowing whether either of you has any personal reflections on the matter. If you were in government, would a commissioner’s recommendations be more impactful than those of a parliamentary committee?
SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 15 May 2025
Murdo Fraser
I am happy to get your personal view.
SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 15 May 2025
Murdo Fraser
Thank you.
SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 15 May 2025
Murdo Fraser
I want to ask about the framework for establishing new public bodies. There is a draft ministerial control framework, which the Scottish Government has been using for the past two years, that sets out criteria to be applied should a new public body be created. Part of the framework specifies engagement with the SPCB at an early stage to discuss any proposed SPCB-supported bodies and potential impacts on the SPCB budget.
I have two questions, which I will ask together to save time. Have you had any interactions with the Scottish Government on proposed new bodies? To what extent are you able to feed in views on the SPCB’s capacity to provide effective governance?
SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 15 May 2025
Murdo Fraser
That is fine.
SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 8 May 2025
Murdo Fraser
Thank you, convener. We have been trying to understand what the driver is for that. Why are people proposing commissioners? We are not exactly an under-governed country: we have 129 MSPs, 57 MPs, 20-something Government ministers and 130-something Government bodies. Why do people want more commissioners? One thing that has been said to us is that it is because people feel frustrated that there is a failure in delivery and in what the Government is trying to do, and they see a commissioner as a way to force the pace of change. Do you have any thoughts on that? Do you recognise that concern?
SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 8 May 2025
Murdo Fraser
To be fair, we recognise that there is a difference.
SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 8 May 2025
Murdo Fraser
Okay. Thank you.
SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 8 May 2025
Murdo Fraser
Of course. The point that I am trying to get to is: what is the added value of a commissioner, as opposed to cross-party parliamentary committees that produce reports? As a minister, if you have a critical report from a commissioner and a critical report from a parliamentary committee, which of those do you think has more weight?
09:45