Chamber and committees

We will be coming on to capital—that is one of our sections.

We will come to that as we move on.

Alice Telfer, I was going to turn to you next anyway, because you have your own contribution to make. In your submission, you said:

“Scottish tax decisions and quality of service provision”

are

“highly sensitive to changes which may compare unfavourably with the rest of the UK.”

Does Scotland ever compare favourably with the rest of the UK? For example, others have suggested that people might want to come to Scotland because of the additional social provisions here, such as free university tuition, free personal care for the elderly or free eye tests and dental check-ups—if you can get a dentist these days. Can you respond to what always seems to be one-way traffic?

Good morning, and welcome to the 25th meeting in 2024 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. First, I congratulate committee members Liz Smith, Michelle Thomson and Michael Marra on winning the political hero, the back bencher of the year and, jointly, the business of politics awards at last week’s Holyrood political awards 2024. However, I am of course disappointed that colleagues did not refuse the awards in solidarity with the convener, who, through some oversight, was not nominated.

We have one public item on our agenda, which is to take evidence from two panels of witnesses on managing Scotland’s public finances, a strategic approach, as part of this year’s pre-budget scrutiny.

For the first panel, I welcome Richard Robinson, senior manager for performance audit and best value at Audit Scotland; Professor David Bell, fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; and Professor David Heald, emeritus professor and honorary senior research fellow at the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith business school.

As we have your submissions, we will move straight to questions. I will allow about 90 minutes for this session. If you wish to be brought in at any time, please indicate to the clerks and I can then bring you in. Without further ado, we will start at the very beginning, as Julie Andrews once sang.

Mr Robinson, we set out 11 questions on the Scottish Government’s priorities, and we got some very detailed and excellent answers. I thank you all for your submissions. In the second paragraph of Audit Scotland’s answer to the first question, you say:

“activities to eradicate child poverty will rely upon social security payments, education spending, well paid work in a flourishing economy, and many other factors. For the priorities to be meaningfully felt and understood in the annual budget, a clear articulation of how services and spending will work together will be required.”

Is that happening?

I am sorry to interrupt but, for the record, would you like to explain what a mandate letter is?

You think that the Government is paying lip service rather than seriously consulting with the small business sector.

I think, though, that you would prefer to participate more in the creation of such policies rather than just be consulted on them. Is that right?

You mentioned your concerns about regulation. For the record, will you say which regulations you feel are surplus to requirements and could perhaps be repealed and which others you feel should not be implemented? I will ask Vikki Manson the same question. Do not worry, Mr Lott—I will be coming to you, too.

You are telling us. We have to scrutinise it.

Good morning, and welcome to the 25th meeting in 2024 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. First, I congratulate committee members Liz Smith, Michelle Thomson and Michael Marra on winning the political hero, the back bencher of the year and, jointly, the business of politics awards at last week’s Holyrood political awards 2024. However, I am of course disappointed that colleagues did not refuse the awards in solidarity with the convener, who, through some oversight, was not nominated.

We have one public item on our agenda, which is to take evidence from two panels of witnesses on managing Scotland’s public finances, a strategic approach, as part of this year’s pre-budget scrutiny.

For the first panel, I welcome Richard Robinson, senior manager for performance audit and best value at Audit Scotland; Professor David Bell, fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; and Professor David Heald, emeritus professor and honorary senior research fellow at the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith business school.

As we have your submissions, we will move straight to questions. I will allow about 90 minutes for this session. If you wish to be brought in at any time, please indicate to the clerks and I can then bring you in. Without further ado, we will start at the very beginning, as Julie Andrews once sang.

Mr Robinson, we set out 11 questions on the Scottish Government’s priorities, and we got some very detailed and excellent answers. I thank you all for your submissions. In the second paragraph of Audit Scotland’s answer to the first question, you say:

“activities to eradicate child poverty will rely upon social security payments, education spending, well paid work in a flourishing economy, and many other factors. For the priorities to be meaningfully felt and understood in the annual budget, a clear articulation of how services and spending will work together will be required.”

Is that happening?