Chamber and committees

Might be—or is?

With a body such as the Scottish Fiscal Commission, which is more in our space, the committee meets its representatives regularly, and I think that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will be doing a review of it. Can you say anything about that? Does the Government review the SFC at all?

Let me put it another way: is there someone in the Parliament who could lead on that better than the committee?

To be clear, I was not thinking primarily about the SPCB bodies; I was thinking about the chief inspector of constabulary or the chief inspector of prisons. Is it just on a policy level that they get reviewed?

It was just in your opening comments.

If the Parliament is considering the appointment of a new commissioner, the Government will give its view and everyone else will give their views, whereas, if the Government is proposing a new commissioner, it is primarily the Government that will drive the proposal.

I accept all of that.

You have also stressed the independence of SPCB bodies. Do you think that they are more independent than, for instance, Government commissioners? People such as His Majesty’s chief inspector of constabulary and His Majesty’s chief inspector of prisons are seen as being quite independent. Is there a difference from the public’s point of view?

Are the ones that were set up by the Government, or which operate under the Government, scrutinised? Can you say anything about how they are scrutinised within Government or the civil service?

A related question is who will lead on any change and take it forward. You seem to be indicating that the Government would not lead on, say, giving the SHRC more clout if we went down that route. In that case, who should lead on it? It is easy to say that it should be the Parliament, but Parliament is made up of 129 of us, and we all look in different directions. Does the Finance and Public Administration Committee need to drive the issue forward?

Given that I am on the Finance and Public Administration Committee, you will not be surprised to hear that I want to ask about the financial effects that I read about in the policy note, which says that the Scottish Fiscal Commission has decided not to produce any forecasts because there will not be a material impact. However, will there be any financial impact as a result of the regulations?