Chamber and committees

Okay—that is great. Thanks, convener.

Pursuing the cross-border placements issue a bit more, I presume that it is better for a young person to be nearer to the local authority area that is responsible for them. As I understand it, the local authority is still responsible for education and other measures of support.

Thanks. That is very helpful. I will come to Professor Flinders shortly, but I will press you on something that you said. You mentioned the short term and the long term quite a few times in your answer. Do you think that it is impossible for politicians and civil servants to take a long-term view unless there is somebody outside kicking them?

Thanks. Professor Martin, do you have any comments?

I am interested in the Wales Centre for Public Policy, which other witnesses have spoken of quite positively. Does Scotland need something like that? In Scotland, we have an ad hoc relationship between Government, Parliament and academia; we bring people in to talk about a particular issue and then do not speak to them for a while. Is there just a better relationship between the Government and the universities and academics in Wales and that, as a result, it is a longer-term relationship?

You are not suggesting some quick cut-off—in fact, you are suggesting that it will probably take time—but the aim is that, over time, children from Kent and Cornwall should not be coming to Scotland.

That is great.

I fully accept that there will be a new—or revised—financial memorandum, but I note that at the moment the overall total costs range from £10.67 million to £11.94 million. That is a pretty small amount compared with other bills that the committee has looked at, although I accept that it is still money that we need to look at.

The other thing that struck me was how tight the forecast was. There is, broadly speaking, only a 10 per cent difference between the bottom and top costs. That is a good thing, because we sometimes see financial memorandums that have been absolutely all over the place. How is your range so tight? Indeed, I think that there are some people who feel that it is perhaps too tight.

So, although the future is never predictable, the costs for this bill are, in one sense, a little bit more predictable than they might be in some areas of legislation.

Some money is shared out to local government in different ways—for example, by population share, by need or by other methods.

Continuing with the theme of who does what, I am interested in the concept of commissioners, so I will start with Ms Howe. You and your position have been held in high regard and it has been suggested that we in Scotland should copy the Welsh model and have a commissioner for future generations or something like that. At the same time, a multiplicity of commissioners are being sought in Scotland and I can see us ending up with 14 or perhaps more in the short term. Where do commissioners fit into decision making? Are they taking away work that members of the Senedd should be doing?