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Agenda item 5 concerns the issue of joint investment funds. It arose after conversations that we had in one of our informal budget meetings, at which we noted that there is not much evidence to suggest that joint investment funds are being used at all. It is suggested that we ask the Executive to provide the committee with information on the management and operation of joint investment funds in all health boards and trusts. That information should give us an idea of how successfully those funds are operating.
I have written to every health board, and have received replies from 80 per cent of them, on the number of joint investment funds in operation. To date, that number is one. We might well be talking about a theory.
Can we leave that discussion to a future meeting? I will liaise with Ben Wallace on that issue, and we might write to the remaining 20 per cent of health boards.
I suggest that that item should be on the agenda for the next meeting at which one of the ministers will be present. The system is clearly not working, and we have the information to support that assertion.
I agree, but the committee will be in a stronger position to question the ministers if it has received evidence from all the health boards and trusts in Scotland which suggests that the system is not working.
I suggest that the committee should appoint Ben Wallace as the reporter to complete the study that he has already started, rather than have it undertaken again. He should be given the authority of the committee to write to the boards that have not responded, to say that he is now officially approaching them on behalf of the committee. We can then pursue the study, rather than begin collecting evidence again.
That seems a fair suggestion.
I do not have a problem with Ben doing that. However, the situation should be monitored continuously. I would like the Scottish Executive to be involved, so that monitoring happens not just once, for this committee, but on an on-going basis. There is no reason why we cannot take the evidence that Ben has collected and appoint him as the reporter to pull it all together. However, we also need a central collation of statistics to inform us about what is happening.
Does the committee agree to appoint Ben Wallace as the reporter, as he has already done the bulk of the work, to return to the 20 per cent of boards and trusts that have not responded? Once that information has been received, we will proceed in the way that Richard Simpson and Duncan Hamilton have suggested. Are we all agreed?
May I make one more point, in reference to a related issue?
No. I will leave you frustrated, Duncan. Agenda item 6, on contacts from outside organisations—
It is a genuinely important point, about the budget. At the same meeting, we asked for a note on capital charges, which I would still like to see. Can we ensure that that note is received?
Okay. No problem.
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