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 1370 contributions
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Clare Adamson
When we did our investigation into the international offices, all the evidence that we took was positive. There was good work and complementary work—everything that you have just spoken about was there. The British Council, for instance, said that it would welcome more offices and efforts opening up. However, domestically—Seona Shand touched on this—the discourse is that we hear terms such as “pretend embassies” and “waste of money”. Does the intergovernmental strain at the moment break through into the perception internationally? In relation to the rest of the UK, is Scotland the only country that is experiencing such tension, or is that shared by the Welsh Government and in Northern Ireland?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Clare Adamson
Agenda item 2 is an evidence session as part of the committee’s continuing inquiry into the Scottish Government’s national outcomes and indicators relating to international policy.
We are delighted to be joined this morning by Seona Shand, international trade director, Scottish Chambers of Commerce; Vicki Miller, director of marketing and digital, VisitScotland; Gareth Williams, head of policy, Scottish Council for Development and Industry; and Anthony Salamone, managing director, European Merchants. A warm welcome to you all.
I will open with an introductory question, which I have based on Ms Shand’s written evidence to the committee; thank you to those who made written submissions. The SCC’s submission said:
“Scotland punches above its weight on the global stage ... However, as our competitors step up their game and the uncertain world of migration, business and investment and travel evolves, we need to shift up a gear.”
I am interested in the gear shift, and in finding out whether everyone shares the opinion that those are the main challenges in the work that the Scottish Government is doing.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Clare Adamson
That exhausts the committee’s questions. I thank you all for your attendance.
The committee will now move into private session.
10:38 Meeting continued in private until 10:50.Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 15 June 2023
Clare Adamson
I have a brief supplementary before we move on. How does Scotland’s reputation, which is a measurable indicator, relate to, say, the perception of Scotland’s cultural offering, and how do all these things link in with what happens?
Ms Miller, do you want to go first on that?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Clare Adamson
I will take a supplementary question from Mr Bibby and then come back to Mr Cameron.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Clare Adamson
Agenda item 2 is evidence for our inquiry into culture in communities, which has focused on a place-based approach to culture. We are joined by Alastair Evans, interim director of strategy and planning, and Karen Dick, head of place, partnership and communities, both from Creative Scotland. They will not be making opening statements, because they have both submitted written evidence, for which I thank them.
The Scottish Government’s culture strategy committed to working with Creative Scotland to
“map local authority support for culture and to explore future models of collaboration between national and local bodies”.
Please give us an update on how that work is progressing.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Clare Adamson
Given what you have just said, perhaps we could look at the example of sportscotland, which has a statutory role on community planning partnerships. Its role is quite similar to yours, in that it has responsibility not just for elite sport, which could be seen as equivalent to the work that you do with the national performing companies, but grass-roots sport. Are you a wee bit jealous of sportscotland’s position as it relates to local authorities? Would it help if Creative Scotland were on the same footing with regard to how we want to move forward on the wellbeing society?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Clare Adamson
That is a really strong message that has come through in a lot of our evidence sessions, not least those in Edinburgh last Friday. One of the board members of WHALE arts described “donut funding”: over time, it diminishes the organisation not to have that core element. That is almost exacerbated if there is a building associated with an organisation, but even for organisations that do not have responsibility for a building, that key administration and management strategy element has to be supported.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Clare Adamson
I see that none of our members have any final questions. It looks as though we have exhausted them. Thank you for coming.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 8 June 2023
Clare Adamson
I have no doubt that we will see you again during our deliberations.
10:10 Meeting continued in private until 10:33.