Chamber and committees

During the discussion, we have touched on the use of Scottish Government staff, including in the role of chief executive. They are provided by the Scottish Government on Scottish Government terms; in fact, I think that almost all your staff are secondments, and it is unusual for that to happen to such an extent. What are the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach?

Did the Parliament decide that?

But it never has.

Okay. I have one last question. Malcolm, you have been fairly clear that you are happy with the current relationship between the sponsorship division and the Crofting Commission.

Given the changes in the virus that we are dealing with, are we confident about the type of PPE that we are producing or reasonably satisfied that we can secure the PPE that we might need in future? I know that the question is a bit hypothetical, but do we have flexibility to effect the changes in PPE that might be needed?

As a last angle on this question, I would say that one of the important by-products of all this, apart from the PPE itself, is the jobs that have been created in Scotland. Do we know what proportion of those jobs are permanent and whether that situation is likely to continue?

Let us move on to the safer ground of sponsorship arrangements. Serious concerns about how they worked come out in the report. How did it come about that the Government’s sponsor division seemed to relate to the senior management team rather than the convener?

Could you not do the same thing simply by recruiting people on the Scottish Government’s terms and conditions?

But you do not.

The act gives the option.