Chamber and committees

Okay. I accept the point that the financial memorandum and your figures only have to cover this particular bill. However, I would point out that, with regard to women being disadvantaged under the present system, which has already been mentioned and which I think we will agree on, industrial injuries such as cancer in firemen and stress in teachers, those things are all missed out at the moment. What would happen if the council got set up and recommended that all those things be included but there was no money in the Scottish budget to pay any extra benefit? We would still be stuck with whatever the figure is—£84 million or thereabouts. What would happen then?

To be frank, I think that that happens, because there are few checks on people with power of attorney. In a sense, that is a separate issue, but we could be talking about either situation.

How should clients be informed that their information might be used in this way?

My reaction to that is positive, because there is a problem out there that we need to address.

Can you say anything about how the regulations might interact with power of attorney? Would the person who holds the power of attorney be the one who is informed or consulted? Of course, there is a risk that they will be the person who is carrying out the abuse.

On the timing for setting all of this up, the Government seems to be clear that stage 1—which you have rightly said is coming along quite soon—will be purely about transferring the payment from the UK to Scotland. There will be no changes for the first few years, then, after a few years, maybe the Scottish system will change. If that is the timescale that we are looking at, is it worth spending money on a council at this point?

The regulations are definitely a step in the right direction. There is potentially a problem with financial abuse, and anything that we can do to tighten up the system and protect people is very much to be welcomed.

You will not be surprised to hear that, as usual, I will ask about finances.

I will start with the financial memorandum. In the two areas that I am particularly interested in—research and information technology—I note that the figure for IT and website set-up costs is £50,000, with maintenance at £7,000 a year, while the figure for research is £30,000 a year. I just wonder whether all the figures look a little bit low. What can you say about them? Why do you think they are the right ones?

You would not get an awful lot of research for £30,000, would you?

When they were before us, the trade unions certainly had an expectation that there would be an expansion of issues considered, and that would almost inevitably lead to an expansion of benefits paid. Is there any point in having the council if it makes a range of recommendations and the Government says no to them?

Is it not the case that, to start with and for the first few years, only the name will have changed?