Chamber and committees

Are there elements of the inspectorate’s role and the inspection process that would be better moved to regional improvement collaboratives or even to local authorities and conducted entirely through a peer review process, rather than by seconded teachers who have become inspectors, or inspectors who have come in through some other way? Should elements be removed from the inspection process and taken into a purely peer review space? Are there any areas that that would be more appropriate for?

Thank you, Professor Muir. In that section of the report, you raise quite a challenging question: to whom is the inspectorate accountable? Is it Parliament or Government, or some mix of the two? From my reading of it—correct me if I have totally misinterpreted your meaning—your intention is much more to have direct parliamentary accountability, in the same way as we have for some of the commissioners who are appointed by Parliament.

Is there not a need, to some extent, for Government to set a strategic direction? For example, in recent years, we have gone through the process of embedding LGBT-inclusive education and practices in all schools. Is the inspectorate not exactly the type of body that we would want to ensure that something like that had indeed been implemented? Is there a need, therefore, for Government to set a strategic direction—to say to the inspectorate, “For the next five years, it’s very important that this is part of your inspection programme, because we’ve set this as a priority for all schools, with no exceptions”?

Does Professor Donaldson have any thoughts on the make-up of the inspectorate workforce?

If the intention is for the Government still to set the strategic direction of the inspectorate in some respects, how different is the governance structure that you envisage? You have made points around direct accountability to Parliament. What are you looking for in accountability terms that is not in place as part of the current model?

Thank you both very much for that.

I have found the conversation about the inspectorate—particularly the question about who the inspector should be—to be very interesting. Given what has just been said and remarks in your report, Professor Muir, about the need to make greater use of peer review processes and for inspectors to have recent first-hand classroom experience, does that all point towards a system in which the ideal inspectorate is largely staffed by teachers who are on a three-year or five-year secondment? If we want there continuously to be people with very recent classroom experience, people cannot be in post as inspectors for a particularly long period of time, because they will get further away from the last time they were in the classroom. I think that that is an attractive proposal. Does that not lead us to say that the inspectorate should be seconded teachers on short-term contracts?

The paper says that the Government will explore a digital sales tax. Are you in a position to give us a bit more detail on how that process will be taken forward? Presuming that a UK-wide digital sales tax will not be forthcoming in the immediate future, and given the difficulties that have been mentioned about the devolution of new national taxes to Scotland, is that something that you are considering with COSLA as a potential local tax power? I am keen to understand how we will move forward from a commitment in principle to explore the power to a process that would flesh that out.

I return to the convener’s original line of questioning about fiscal sustainability. We know that we will need to significantly increase tax revenues in order to plug the gap with the shortfall in income tax that has been forecast, alongside the increase in social security spending and, on top of that, the additional spending that we all acknowledge will be required to hit our child poverty and climate targets. A lot of the discussion so far, and much of what has been referenced in the framework, has emphasised the need to grow the taxable economy and improve economic performance. Other points have been made about folk in higher income tax bands replacing those who are moving out of the oil and gas sector.

Is it the Government’s position that wider changes in economic policy and wider improvement in economic performance are the primary ways to increase tax revenue, or is there an acknowledgement that direct changes will need to be made to tax policy in order to increase revenue by the amount that is likely to be required?

I turn back to the Fraser of Allander Institute report on the small business bonus scheme that the minister mentioned. The top line conclusion that I drew from that report was that there is essentially no hard evidence that the scheme is improving economic performance. Can you comment on that? I know that the Scottish Government is developing its full, formal response, but what is your initial response? Given the amount of money that it has put in to the scheme, it seemed an alarming conclusion for such a respected institute to essentially say, “There is no evidence that this is working.”

It is surprising.