Members will be aware that the Parliament agreed in December that deputy conveners should be allocated to various committees on the basis of parties. It is agreed that the deputy convener for the Finance Committee should come from the Labour party. I invite nominations.
I nominate Richard Simpson.
I second that.
Any further nominations?
Maybe Richard would like to speak about his plans for the job.
Discreet silence is appropriate. I thank the committee for its confidence.
There was some question about whether next week's meeting would be necessary. Sarah, would you like to elucidate?
It is possible that we may have an insufficient number of items to justify a full agenda next week. If people are happy with the proposal, we may not have a meeting until a fortnight today.
Would next week be an appropriate time to consider what is going on with the health budget? It would not take long to have a brief dialogue with someone about that.
We will be meeting the Minister for Finance the following week, which is surely the best opportunity to raise that specific point. If we had not scheduled such a meeting, I would have said yes.
I agree. We need to get the facts sorted out, rather than just taking the minister head on. We could use the meeting as an opportunity to do some housework, or whatever is required, so that when the minister comes, we are prepared for him. However, someone from the Scottish Council Foundation could talk to us for three quarters of an hour or so, to help us to clarify where we are going with our inquiry. I am conscious that time will run out for us soon.
At such short notice, few of the people that we might want to hear would be available at the drop of a hat.
I share Andrew's concern and suggest a compromise, which is to get some kind of written evidence on health expenditure in advance of the minister's visit. It might be useful to have some kind of detailed submission on the exact figures, as so many are being tossed around. When the Prime Minister is shown a headline on "Breakfast with Frost", and not even he knows where the figure comes from, we are entitled to ask.
Written evidence could be supplied before the minister appears before us.
I support what Keith has said. It would be useful to have written information on the health budget, to consider dispassionately. I sympathise with the clerk's concern that it is difficult to summon people at a week's notice on a subject of this nature. We have to do it properly, so I support that as a fair compromise.
Is that agreed? Sarah, would it be possible to get that sort of information?
Yes.
So there is no meeting next week?
We will not meet next Tuesday. Our next meeting will be in two weeks' time. Thank you for your attendance.
Meeting closed at 10:53.