Chamber and committees

Do all the colleges and universities have completely different systems?

More people want to come in now.

Does David Page want to come on that as well?

That raises a wider question along the lines of the point that David Page made—and which I wanted to go back to—about the merging of the police not happening had they not been forced to do so from the centre. I therefore just wanted to ask—with my tongue perhaps a little bit in my cheek—whether there are any organisations that you think that you could merge with or take over. Indeed, do any of you think that you should be demerged into two bits instead of being just one? That question is perhaps for Anthony Daye, given that his is the newest organisation.

I should also say that we have approximately 15 minutes left. If there are any areas that you feel that we have not touched on but that we should have done, please highlight them. We have, as I think Keith Brown alluded to, spent quite a lot of time looking at what has been happening within organisations, but the question that is in my mind is all about what should come from the centre. How much should the Government say has to happen, and how much should be up to yourselves to change?

We have a bit of space here. Does anyone wish to respond to those comments or to Keith Brown’s points?

Liz Smith has been waiting, so I bring her in.

So are you saying that it does not matter how many organisations we have, as long as they are sharing data?

Okay—that was thought provoking.

I have three or four people wanting to come in now. I will take Karen Watt, Kerry Twyman and then Anthony Daye.

That is a fair point. Whenever we look at local government reform, one of the arguments against it is that it causes everyone to focus on the reform instead of services, so that is quite a good point to finish on.

I thank all the witnesses for attending today’s discussion. We will continue our evidence taking on the Scottish Government’s public service reform programme in the coming weeks. If any of you has more thoughts for us or wants to expand on something that you have said, send us your comments—we are very open to that. I am sure that we will use some of the things that you have said today to question other witnesses as we continue.

That concludes the public part of the meeting.

Okay—we are getting some bigger ideas now.

That is a useful point that we might take forward.

We are close to the end of our time, so I will let Douglas Lumsden make a final point, and Garry McEwan and Stuart MacQuarrie will be our final contributors