Chamber and committees

Okay. Thanks. Dr Turbyne, did you want to come in on this point?

Ms Hughes, was it all negative as far as you are concerned or were there positives?

The committee has been looking quite a lot at how things work within Government. Today, you are mainly commenting on how Government as a whole relates to you. I was interested in SCVO’s point in its written response that it would be

“helpful for the voluntary sector itself to get a better understanding of how the Scottish Government works and how decisions are indeed taken”,

which is kind of what we are trying to do here. Does it matter to you whether it is civil servants who are the main people who lead on policy, with the minister trailing along behind, or whether, in other cases, it is the minister who drives things and the civil servants trail along behind? Does that impact on you?

Good morning, and welcome to the 12th meeting in 2023 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. As the oldest member of the committee—which I am required to state—I will convene the meeting for the first two items of business, which will take only a couple of minutes, until the committee chooses a deputy convener. Sadly, the convener is not able to attend today, due to a bereavement.

I know that the convener would want me to first put on record our thanks to Daniel Johnson for all his hard work in supporting the committee’s scrutiny and for his collegiate approach as the deputy convener.

I am pleased to welcome Michael Marra to the committee as a new member and as Daniel’s replacement. I invite him to declare any relevant interests.

That is helpful; thanks. We have already discussed how we can make longer-term decisions so that it is not all about the short term. You have all recognised that that is a problem, but I wonder whether any of you have solutions.

We had the example from New Zealand of civil servants setting out a longer-term plan—not a plan, but the options for a sector. That work is not connected to the minister. That is never done in Scotland, because everything that civil servants do here comes through ministers. Does the New Zealand approach sound feasible, or do you have any other suggestions for how we can get longer-term planning, given that all members of Parliament are elected every five years?

Why is that not happening? Are civil servants not incentivised properly?

Training and upskilling have come up previously.

Do you want to come in on that, Dr Turbyne?

That sounds quite good, but that might be easier when it comes to planning, as buildings take a long time to build.

Ms Le Noan, I think that one of your problems relates to year-to-year funding and such things.

Thank you. I would like to ask about something else.

The pandemic has been mentioned, but the witnesses have given slightly different views on their experiences of it. On the whole, SCVO’s view was positive, because you felt that decisions were being made under pressure and that the third sector was maybe being dealt with a bit more fairly, whereas I got the impression from Ms Hughes’ submission that corners were being cut. How do we tie up urgency and better decision making? Mr Greer was talking about urgency earlier. Was the experience during the pandemic positive?