Official Report: search what was said in Parliament
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.
Searching by different views
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
- Report: this is the whole Official Report for a particular meeting of a committee or Parliament
- Item of business: this is each individual agenda item in an Official Report. For example, Portfolio Questions would be the item of business in a Meeting of the Parliament report
- Contribution: this is each time someone has made a spoken contribution to a meeting.
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.
Search by MSP
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.
Searching by keyword
There are two types of keyword search:
- A keyword search without quotation marks will look for every instance of each word used and rank the results by frequency and proximity. It will also include variants of the keywords using “porter stemming”. This is when the search looks for the “stem” of a word regardless of its ending. So, for example, a search for [salmon farm] will return each instance of “salmon” and each instance of “farm” as well as potentially including results for “farms”, “farmed” and “farming”.
- A keyword search with quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase used. So, for example, a search for “salmon farm” in quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase.
Combining search filters
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.
More complex keyword searches
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
- a search for “salmon farm” AND “Loch Lomond” will return only results which include both exact phrases
- a search for “salmon farm” NOT “Loch Lomond” will return results for “salmon farm” but exclude results which also include “Loch Lomond”
- a search for “salmon farm” OR “Loch Lomond” will return all results for “salmon farm” and all results for “Loch Lomond” regardless of whether they appear together
Searching by date
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:
- Current session (all Official Reports since the current sessions started)
- Last 6 months
- Last 12 months
- each of the previous sessions of Parliament. (Selecting the information icon above the “Select a time period” menu will give you the exact dates for each session.)
- All sessions
- You can also choose to select a custom date range, although adding a Start or End date will mean the search automatically defaults to this option.
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.
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Displaying 692 contributions
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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 24 February 2026
Mark Griffin
:My second question is on council tax premiums for long-term empty homes. There is a concern that the higher premiums may potentially affect an owner’s ability to invest in the property to bring it back up to a liveable standard. Have there been discussions with local authorities about providing flexibility to allow for a property being actively renovated and brought back into use? I know that empty-homes officers in North Lanarkshire will work closely with an owner who is working to bring a property into use and recommend contractors to do the work. Have any discussions happened on that?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 24 February 2026
Mark Griffin
Good morning. I support the regulations, as I think that they are absolutely the right thing to introduce, especially in the context of the housing emergency. I want to touch on two areas that I hope will not have an impact on the success of the regulations.
My first question is whether an increase in council tax on second homes produces an incentive for owners to switch to short-term lets, rather than paying the second-home levy. What thinking has the Government done on the enforcement of that at council level? Has that been followed up through the short-term let licensing scheme?
Also, there is a need to ensure that there is proper enforcement so that, if homes are switched to short-term lets, they are available to let for the required 140-day period and are occupied for the required 70-day period so as to qualify for the small business bonus scheme—so that the switch to a short-term let is not used as a tax avoidance method.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 24 February 2026
Mark Griffin
:Good morning. The financial memorandum to the bill that became the 2024 act said that the Scottish Government would engage with stakeholders when it came to the costs of the regulations. What engagement has the Government had with local authorities and tourism bodies or operators on the cost of the appeal process for them?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 24 February 2026
Mark Griffin
:My other question is on a potential clash. We might expect a high volume of appeals when it comes to non-domestic rates and the on-going revaluation exercise. Particularly in Edinburgh, given that the City of Edinburgh Council is taking forward its scheme earlier than other areas, is there potential for a high volume of claims on NDR to clash with claims on the visitor levy? Is the courts and tribunals system adequately resourced to cover such a pinch point?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Mark Griffin
Good morning. My question is similar to the one that I asked the previous panel. Do you agree that the broad approach taken in the regulations is proportionate and strikes the right balance between protection for tenants and the rights of landlords when it comes to the regulations, or what is called Awaab’s law?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Mark Griffin
Yes. Thank you, Emma, for raising the issue of temporary accommodation. We have received written concerns from Shelter that the same level of legal protection will not be given to tenants in temporary accommodation, which is a big worry, given that there are 10,500 kids in temporary accommodation. Do other witnesses have similar concerns about a lack of protection for tenants in temporary accommodation?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Mark Griffin
I have a couple more questions to wrap this up. Emma Saunders touched on the levels of compensation. Do witnesses agree that the timescales for investigating and commencing repairs and the compensation arrangements are appropriate? Secondly, do witnesses think that there should be a programme of awareness raising, both for landlords and tenants, of the responsibilities and rights that are conveyed by the regulations?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Mark Griffin
As the convener said, my questions are about the regulations that are better known as Awaab’s law. Do the witnesses agree that the broad approach taken in the regulations is proportionate and that it balances protection for tenants with the rights of landlords?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Mark Griffin
Yes. I was going to come back on the issue of temporary accommodation that Gillian McLees has just raised. It is good to hear witnesses say that they are broadly supportive of the balance between the protection of tenants and of landlords, but concerns have been raised—on a similar basis to Gillian’s—about whether all residents in temporary accommodation will be given protection. Shelter has raised concerns that some tenants in temporary accommodation will not be covered, which is a big concern, considering that there are 10,500 children in temporary accommodation. Do witnesses support Shelter’s call for all tenants in temporary accommodation to be explicitly given the same protections as tenants in the private sector and permanent tenants in the social sector?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 17 February 2026
Mark Griffin
I have two questions that I will wrap up into one. Do our witnesses think that the timescales for investigating and commencing repairs, as well as for the compensation arrangements, are appropriate? What would be appropriate in terms of raising awareness of the responsibility of landlords and the rights of tenants in order to give tenants the ability to challenge landlords to meet the expected timescales?
