Official Report 318KB pdf
Agenda item 5 concerns our stage 2 consideration of the 2009-10 budget. An approach paper has been circulated to committee members. It outlines our anticipated approach to the budget and, in particular, seeks agreement for the appointment of a budget adviser. This item is simply housekeeping and good practice. We are trying to get in there first, as there was a lot of competition for budget advisers last year. We were fortunate to have an excellent budget adviser, but we need to get in early. We are trying to be well prepared for the budget process, which we will reach later in the year.
I am happy that we are trying to get in early and secure a good adviser. The budget involves us in a wide range of work, and I hope that we can get an adviser who can reflect all that. We sometimes pick on large budget items and perhaps ignore other areas in which we could probe more usefully. I hope that we get someone who can help us in those other areas, too. I welcome the paper and hope that we can have a successful budget scrutiny this time compared with previously.
I assume from the indications of support that the committee is generally agreed with the approach that is taken in the paper. We will write to the Parliamentary Bureau to seek its agreement to the committee's request to appoint an adviser, and a list of suitable candidates will be brought to a meeting before the summer recess.
Meeting suspended.
On resuming—