Chamber and committees

You did not refer to the national strategy for economic transformation in that response. Can you touch on that point?

Yes, I appreciate that. Obviously, I will be asking other questions, but I see that Stephen Boyle wants to come in on this issue.

I ask that question because, although that will not be particularly welcomed by those who are impacted by it, for the Scottish Government, it will mean that there is additional revenue for the plethora of organisations that, understandably given the current situation, want additional funding.

Susan Murray, you talked about the need to remove the barriers to work. Which specific barriers need to be removed as a priority?

Yes, of course.

Absolutely, and we also need to make those changes in order to generate savings. I have noticed that no one seems to be putting any pounds, shillings or pence on anything today.

My last question before we move to questions from my colleagues around the table is for Charlotte Barbour, and it is a straightforward one. In your written submission to the committee, you called for the devolved taxes legislation working group to be reconvened as soon as possible, so who should chair that group?

I was waiting for you to use those two words: “finance” and “bill.”

From a previous life, I recall that the McClelland report talked about rationalising information technology across Scotland. Has that not happened? It does not seem to have, given that you say that financial reporting has 40 different outputs. I can imagine that there would be a few—possibly, annoyingly—but is it necessary to have 40?

Good afternoon and welcome to the 23rd meeting in 2022 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. The first item on our agenda is to take evidence from the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth on the Scottish Landfill Tax (Prescribed Landfill Site Activities) Amendment Order 2022. Mr Arthur is joined by Robert Souter, who is a senior tax policy adviser at the Scottish Government. I welcome them both to the meeting, and I invite Mr Arthur to make a short opening statement.

It would be useful, because the people who are most mobile, who are also the people who could pay or be liable for the highest level of taxation, are always of significant interest.

I am intrigued that Susan Murray’s submission mentions open data. It says that

“over 95% of the data that could be open is still locked up, at an ... annual cost to the Scottish economy of just over £2bn.”

I was struck by the size and scale of that figure. I took it that you meant the wider Scottish economy, not just the public sector, but if that is the case, what is the split, how can or should that data be opened up and over what timescale do you envisage that happening?