Local Government and Transport Committee, 02 Sep 2003

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 2, 2003

Official Report 180KB pdf

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Budget Process 2004-05

Agenda item 4 is the budget process 2004-05. Members are invited to consider whether they wish to appoint an adviser or advisers to assist the committee in its consideration of the budget.

Members will be aware that we are restricted in the time that we will have for consideration of the budget for 2004-05 as a result of this year's election. Therefore, our consideration is likely to be concertina-ed. The suggestion in the paper is that, as it might be difficult for us to get an adviser with sufficient expertise in both transport and local government, we may wish to appoint advisers for each area. I seek members' comments on whether we should adopt that approach and make an application to the Conveners Group for such appointments or whether we should appoint just one adviser.

There are two specialised remits requiring specialist expertise. Therefore, I recommend the appointment of two advisers to secure the maximum amount of information to educate our work. The work load would be too heavy and detailed for one person; there should be two advisers to help us in our work.

Is anyone otherwise minded?

Not at all. However, I want to ask about the deadline, which seems to be just six or seven weeks away. What might that mean for our timetable? I should think that it is pretty tight for both issues.

I will ask Eugene Windsor to comment. The impact of the time scale will be that our comments on the budget will be more constrained than they would be in a normal financial year. We will be able to address that issue in the next parliamentary year.

If the committee approves the proposal in the paper, we will produce a list of names for members' consideration at the committee's next meeting on 16 September. The October recess should allow time for the advisers to do some work, and we would expect them to produce a draft report for the committee's approval immediately after the October recess. The timetable is tight, but we think that it is doable.

How much time will we have to debate the issues concerning transport and local government in the budget?

We will have two sessions before the October recess and one session after it.

I suggest that we cover both areas in those sessions if we can.

Is it agreed that we will seek to appoint two advisers and consider the matter in detail at the next meeting?

Members indicated agreement.