Chamber and committees

Some of the points that I was looking to make have been covered by Michael Marra, but I will focus a little on outcomes. Your report informs discussion and consultation on the potential setting up of a new commission or commissioner. The introduction to your report says:

“The research was to provide a nuanced understanding of how commissions or commissioners effectively complete their functions, working jointly with others.”

Is evaluating outcomes not part of that?

You are saying that evaluating the outcomes of commissioners was not part of what you were asked to do in the remit for the report that the Scottish Government asked you to produce. I want to be clear on that.

You will appreciate the difficulty. We are looking at the landscape and a number of areas of the work of commissioners—how they overlap, their governance, accountability and the financial costs—but we cannot seem to pin that down to what they achieve for the people they are meant to be achieving things for.

There are specific areas as well—for example, as I represent the Highlands and Islands, I want to see whether there are any issues around rurality and its impacts, and which groups are missed out. Do you accept that our ability to consider issues is limited if we lack detailed information on outcomes?

Do you find it slightly surprising that you were asked to conduct a report on a potential new commission or commissioner but you were not asked to evaluate the outcomes of other commissioners? You were asked to look at all the governance, overlap and other aspects of commissioners and commissions but not at whether they work.

Okay—thank you.

Did you have no idea at any point that the £5 million potential cost would be presented? Did that come as a complete surprise to you?

It just seems odd to me that you were aware that costs were being revised; you did not know what those costs would be; ultimately, they came in at three and a bit times what they had been; but at no point do you seem to have been concerned about how that might impact on the progress of the bill or on the committee’s ability to scrutinise it.

The costs will go up hugely, for a key player. Do you think that you have done enough in relation to keeping in touch with, liaising with or requesting that information from Police Scotland?

As I said, you were not aware of it. Will that change how you may look at such things in the future?

When did it say that?

When was that? I am trying to get an idea of the timeline and of how long it has taken to get to this position.