Agenda item 3 is the financial scrutiny review. In a sense, it follows on from the evidence session on the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill, because it deals with the need to appoint an adviser to help the committee to provide improved scrutiny of financial memoranda. An earlier paper by Arthur Midwinter stated that there is a need for such an adviser and we agreed to that in principle. The paper before the committee sets out the specification for an adviser. I invite comments from members.
Not only will we not get an adviser who has no interests to declare, but it will be difficult to find someone who can deal with matters at short notice. The adviser will have to be available within a few days whenever the Parliament is sitting. To ensure that we have the appropriate support, should the post be a job share?
That is a good point. We will require an immediate steer on whether there is merit in taking evidence on a bill. We are looking for someone who can respond in a matter of days when a bill is introduced. I do not know as yet whether such people are widely available. We will definitely bear that point in mind. We can beef up the specification to make it more categoric on that point.
If we are to examine in detail the financial consequences of bills, the adviser should be able to provide projected costs, which can then be tested against witnesses' views.
The difficulty is that we will have to suck it and see. We cannot predict how much advice will be required on specific bills or what proportion of bills we will want to examine in detail. We can try to phrase what we say to the Parliamentary Bureau to allow us to make a definition based on practice as the situation develops.
I presume that the adviser will require a retention fee plus payment of costs.
If we agree the principle and the broad specification for the adviser, we can consider the practicalities later. Normally the Scottish Parliament information centre conducts such processes, so perhaps it should consider the best method of proceeding. Different payment arrangements will suit different individuals who can do the job in different ways. As long as our requirements are met, we have a degree of flexibility in the arrangements for the adviser.
As we have agreed to take agenda items 4 and 5 in private, I ask the press and public to leave and the official report to shut down.
Meeting continued in private until 12:57.