Chamber and committees

The next item on our agenda is our second annual evidence session with representatives from Revenue Scotland on how it fulfils its functions. I welcome Elaine Lorimer, who is the chief executive, and Aidan O’Carroll, who is the chair of Revenue Scotland.

Thank you for your statement—it is much appreciated. I saw Elaine blush briefly at those remarks.

In time-honoured fashion, I will open with a few questions and then we will go round the table so that colleagues can come in.

Revenue Scotland was created by section 2 of the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014, which I remember very well. It sets out a number of particular functions, one of which is to provide information, advice and assistance to Scottish ministers in relation to tax. Does that include input into the Scottish Government’s tax strategy?

Is the impact of behavioural change on tax decisions one of the areas on which you would give advice?

I would have thought that the schools would still be charged, because, if you are a provider and two pupils do not turn up, you have lost a few hundred pounds, unless the school meets that cost—and the school would surely have to pay a second time, when the child was better.

What parameters did you think were likely to come from the budget? I do not suppose that any minister thought that the figure would be specifically £1,433 million. Were you thinking of a figure between £1 billion and £2 billion, or between £500,000 and £2 billion?

We know that there was a capital underspend of £130.4 million in the previous financial year, which has been carried over, so the spending power has not been lost. Where are we with regard to being on target for delivery of the full capital programme? Being unable to see how some projects are doing compared with others is frustrating.

I know that colleagues around the table have a lot of questions to ask—all six members have expressed an interest in asking questions.

I do not pretend to be Mystic Meg—I hope that no one will ask me for next week’s winning lottery numbers—but I predict that the same switch will happen next year and possibly the year after. I urge the Scottish Government to look again at where it positions those resources at the start of the financial year, because it seems daft to have to go through that process every year.

I understand what you are saying—you would not know the specific amounts—but if there was £1 million or £2 million going the other way, that would look better than transferring a huge chunk of money every year.

I thank the minister and his officials for their evidence. We will publish a short report to the Parliament setting out our decision on the draft instrument in due course.

As that concludes the public part of the meeting, we will move into private session to consider the remaining agenda items.

Good morning and welcome to the 31st meeting of the Finance and Public Administration Committee in 2024.

The first item on our agenda is an evidence session with the Minister for Public Finance on the draft Budget (Scotland) Act 2024 Amendment Regulations 2024. I intend to allow around 75 minutes for the session.

The minister is joined by two Scottish Government officials: Craig Maidment, senior finance manager, and Claire Hughes, head of corporate reporting. I welcome them to the meeting.

I also welcome to our deliberations members of a delegation from the Tobago House of Assembly, who are in the public gallery. I got married on the island of Tobago, which has very fond memories for me.

I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.