Chamber and committees

You mentioned health and safety, so I will touch on that. The annual report on resource accounts talks about strengthening the health and safety systems. Is that about visiting sites?

Okay. I will leave that issue at that point, although we could explore it further.

On the financial side of things, the convener has already asked you about penalties. What do people mainly have to pay penalties for?

I ask the question, because a lot of organisations are still in an uncertain place with regard to staff working patterns and do not know whether they will continue with hybrid working or encourage staff to come in a bit more. Are you in that position, too, or have you reached a settled state?

That was helpful—thank you.

I see that you have a staffing and equalities committee. Is it operating in that space?

Is there a risk associated with that?

Perhaps the main risk is that it runs over budget.

I am also on the Finance and Public Administration Committee. I do not want to overlap too much, but that committee is concerned about the number of organisations in Scotland. This is a small country, but we are getting more commissioners and more councils, commissions or whatever we want to call them. Am I right in saying that there is an assumption in the Government that we should not set up new bodies, except as a last resort?

In quite a lot of what you have said, you have emphasised the relationship between Holyrood—including the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament and everything else—and Westminster. That is obviously not something that we can control. I note that you say:

“I warmly welcomed and reciprocated the keenness of the then Chair of Westminster’s SSAC to liaise regularly with SCoSS”.

That sounds positive, although I do not know whether that is continuing now that you are not there. Is there anything that we in Scotland can do to improve the relationship with the DWP, or is it just going to be one of those things that fluctuates over time?

I will focus on the financial side of things. We have asked previous witnesses about the financial memorandum. If the council were to be established—I accept that the Government is not keen for that to happen—do you think that the figures in the financial memorandum are realistic?

That is also helpful. Another comment that you make is:

“Despite such constraints on policy changes, Scottish Government has thankfully been able to diverge a long way from Westminster”.

Is that more about how we do things, rather than the actual content?