Chamber and committees

Colleagues will lynch me if I continually ask you questions. I will just ask two more. It is the answers; the answers are very detailed.

It would be remiss of me if I did not touch on the consolidated accounts, so I will ask a question about that. The resource budget for 2022-23 was underspent by 0.4 per cent. That is not even a day and a half of the Parliament’s resources. I really think that bringing that down to such a fine margin is a remarkable achievement. We have been told that, with all the background chaos and issues in relation to Westminster and all the rest of it, achieving such accuracy is like trying to land a jumbo on a sixpence, so that is an incredible achievement.

However, I have to say that the contrast between that and the capital budget is quite extraordinary. In that budget, there was a 13.5 per cent underspend at a time when we are currently short of capital. I have obviously read the reasoning for that, but the underspend seems to have been across all portfolios. It is significant, and I would have thought that, when it looked like there would such a huge capital underspend, there would be—this is what we used to call it 10 or 15 years ago—shovel-ready projects in order to ensure that that money was spent effectively. We all drive on roads full of potholes, for example. There must be some way in which we can redirect some of that capital. Will you explain why we have that huge 13.5 per cent underspend? The contrast with resource is quite astonishing.

What you are saying is interesting. Last week, in private session, we spoke to two former MSPs who had previously put forward commissioner proposals, which are still live but with others pursuing them—one is being pursued by the Government, and the other by a back bencher. Neither of those MSPs now support the establishment of the commissioners that they advocated for some years ago. One of them said that that was because of a lack of evaluation or evidence of the positive impact that commissioners have made. That might be unfair on certain commissioners, and we have heard commissioners and others argue quite passionately the opposite. I would like to know our witnesses’ views on that.

A few are being taken back, actually, but never mind.

That applies not just to the commissioner but to the MSP who puts forward the proposal, of course.

That has concluded questions from the committee. Before we wind up, do any of the witnesses want to make any final points on any issues that they feel we have not covered?

Right. In a presentation that we were given, there was a list of 19. That might have been going back to the 19th century.

Okay. I thank our witnesses not only for their patience in waiting so long to speak but for the excellent level of evidence that they have presented in response to our questions.

Before we go into private session, I note that, next week, we will take evidence from the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body.

Thank you for that. You have also said:

“devolution has afforded some scope for differences in matters of people policy and on how the Scottish Civil Service operates”.

Can you expand on that a wee bit?

Okay. Jackie McAllister has been waiting very patiently.

Thank you very much for that comprehensive answer. I am sure that, like me, colleagues will have spent a joyous weekend in the sunshine reading the quality production that I am holding up—the Scottish Government’s bill handbook. One of our concerns about that is that it does not seem to include a definition of a framework bill. That issue has caused great concern to this committee over the past couple of years, particularly in relation to, for example, the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. I am wondering what progress will be made to try to ensure that we have a definition of framework bills.

I am quite intrigued by job families and how that operates. I wonder whether Lesley Fraser would come in here to talk about job families. We have some background information on it, but for the record I am keen to hear about how you envisage it working. Could you also touch on the people strategy and workforce planning? I understand that there has been a 29 per cent reduction in contingent workers over the piece.