Chamber and committees

From the way in which you described the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 and so on, it sounded like you just thought that that was a minor hurdle that would be overcome. Is that the case?

I congratulate Kenneth on his appointment and hand over the chair to him.

I was thinking of something more fundamental. Police Scotland told us that we went from however many police forces to one. No local authority would suggest that we should go from 32 local authorities to 10 or 15. That would have to be a suggestion from central Government, would it not?

That is a good point about pooling the money. Rather than changing the number of organisations, is it therefore more about the relationship between them? For example, we have the city deals, which seem to work to some extent. In Glasgow and the west of Scotland, authorities have worked together, as I understand it, and some health boards sometimes do things jointly because they are not big enough to do them individually. Is better co-operation the way to go?

As you may have realised, we have already heard various evidence on the subject. One of the things that we have been told is that having to find efficiencies to address the current budget pressures, which you have both mentioned, is not the same as fundamental reform. Do you agree with that? Is reform something different; if so, what is it?

With all due respect, I am not really here to hear that you want more money. I understand that and we will look at that in the budget process. I am asking about public sector reform. I will come to Ms Watters in a moment. If we are not going to change the number of local authorities, are there too many other bodies? We used to have health boards and local authorities—two bodies. Now, we have health and social care partnerships in the middle, so there are three bodies. We used to have two enterprise bodies—Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise—and now we have three, because we also have South of Scotland Enterprise. Are there just too many bodies out there?

I have one more question to ask of either of you. The islands, in particular, have suggested the idea of a single authority by putting together health and local government in Shetland, Orkney or the Western Isles, or even Fife, where they are already quite coterminous. Is that something that we should be looking at?

It would also save on chief executive and other costs.

Perhaps I can move on to Ms Watters now, to give her a chance.

Ms Watters, you said that the funding landscape is cluttered. We have Scottish Enterprise, Business Gateway, local authorities and we now have the Scottish National Investment Bank, too. Is it all too cluttered?

Good morning, and welcome to the 19th meeting in 2023 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. We have received apologies from the deputy convener, Michael Marra, who cannot attend today’s meeting. That means that, as the oldest member of the committee, I will convene the meeting for the first item of business, under which the committee will choose a convener.

I put on record our thanks to Keith Brown for his work during his time on the committee, and I welcome back Kenneth Gibson.

The committee has agreed that only members of the Scottish National Party are eligible for nomination as convener of the committee. That being the case, I nominate Kenneth Gibson.

Kenneth Gibson was chosen as convener.