Local Government and Communities Committee, 28 Oct 2009
Meeting date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Official Report
207KB pdf
Subordinate Legislation
Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003 (Amendment of Specified Authorities) Order 2009 (Draft)
Agenda item 2 is oral evidence from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth on a piece of subordinate legislation. The cabinet secretary is accompanied by two officials: Iain Morrison, who is policy and sponsorship manager in the Scottish Government's capital and risk division; and Paul McGhee, who is deputy director for capital and risk in the same division.
I welcome Mr Swinney, who has been busy elsewhere this morning—indeed, he is having a busy week; I am keeping an eye on his diary—and invite him to make a brief introductory statement.
It is a pleasure to be at the meeting this morning, and I am glad to hear that my welfare is being monitored by the convener, if by nobody else.
I welcome the opportunity to discuss the amendment to the Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003 with the committee. The purpose of the order is to ensure that the appointments of the chair and directors of the Scottish Futures Trust are undertaken as part of the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland system. OCPAS provides important scrutiny of the public appointments process, and it is essential to ensure that public confidence is assured in all aspects of the appointments process.
This is the appropriate opportunity for us to ensure that the OCPAS process is used for appointments to the board of the SFT. The order fulfils that purpose.
The committee will be aware that the current appointments have been made until 30 June 2010, and we want all subsequent appointments to be made under the OCPAS code. The order brings legal effect to ministerial commitments for SFT board appointments to come within the scope of OCPAS.
As the committee has no questions for the cabinet secretary, I ask him to move motion S3M-4948.
Motion moved,
That the Local Government and Communities Committee recommends that the draft Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 (Amendment of Specified Authorities) Order 2009 be approved.—[John Swinney.]
Motion agreed to.
As the witnesses for our next item have not yet arrived, I suspend the meeting.
Meeting suspended.
On resuming—