Chamber and committees

That is certainly stood up by evidence that we have had from the Scottish Information Commissioner, who told us that he has to deal with complaints, and it depends on how many complaints he gets—

It is not really up to him in that regard.

As we have gone through this process, looking at what is almost a taxonomy of the different forms of commissioner and, at the start, rejecting the word itself as being pretty useless—it does not really describe the landscape, which is, as John Mason pointed out, so diverse—we have focused quite a lot on issues of advocacy and rights-based areas.

We also have technical commissioners, in particular, the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner. In evidence to the committee, Dr Brian Plastow said:

“I have been in post for three years. I have been called before the committee once in three years and that was to discuss the passing of the statutory code of practice back in 2022. In those three years, I have submitted seven reports to Parliament: two annual reports and accounts, one operational report, a code of practice and three separate assurance reviews. My expectation would have been to have been called before the Criminal Justice Committee more often than I have been”.—[Official Report, Finance and Public Administration Committee, 30 April 2024; c 14.]

Do you have any reflections on that with regard to whether the system is fit for purpose?

There is a point here about technical expertise. To my mind, there is a distinction where Parliament is establishing a commissioner to deal with something that we would not necessarily have the technical expertise to deal with, but which is required to analyse something. For instance, I could easily see a role for a commissioner for artificial intelligence, which would be in the public domain, to understand where closed algorithms are used within public services and how that relates to public policy and a time-limited group of things that we cannot do. There is also a question there about whether we have the technical capacity to scrutinise.

In giving that quote earlier I was not being critical of the Criminal Justice Committee. We all recognise the scale of the legislative burden that it has before it at the moment. Similarly, for a committee that was scrutinising the performance of the patient rights commissioner, say, the budget for that is likely to be £2 million or a little bit less, whereas it might also have somebody in front of it from the national health service talking about spending of £22 billion. There is a question there about the level of function that a committee should give in proportion to the scale of expenditure from the public purse.

Some people would be asking the Finance and Public Administration Committee why we are so concerned about £18 million when we have a budget of £30 billion for the various parts of the public services that we should be scrutinising: £18 million is a small proportion of the overall budget.

The last area that I want to address is the relationship between the politics and the process in the Parliament. Listening to you talk this morning about what mechanisms might be put in place—and we are all keen to know—I reflect that we all arrive here with manifestos, as was highlighted by Mr Carlaw, some of which will say that we will have commissioners, because the people writing those manifestos will have listened to third sector organisations that have been campaigning for them. Would you, as the corporate body, consider writing to the party leaders to set out some of your concerns to them ahead of the manifesto process for 2026, and state to them the problems that are going to present in relation to manifestos if they are approached by bodies outwith the Parliament?

Part of the question that we have asked about the children’s commissioner has been about the fact that, although it has existed for 21 years, in my view, there is little evidence of its having advanced outcomes for children. Child poverty is getting worse, educational attainment is getting worse and there is a national mental health crisis. We are no further forward in realising the rights that we might say that children are entitled to, despite the public money that has been spent on the commissioner and what has been a growing commission. I have no problem with the people who have been the commissioner or the people who work there. My issue is the principled issue of where we spend the money.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission has said that the projected deficit for this financial year is £1 billion, rising to £1.9 billion in 2027-28. There is a significant mismatch between the Government’s plan, as set out, and the budget that is available to deliver it. The plan can be delivered only through very significant cuts. Are you concerned about value for money from having to deal with significant in-year variance in that way?

Have you had these conversations with the new First Minister? Have you told him that there will have to be significant spending reductions? Is that what the Parliament should expect to hear from him when he gives his update on his programmes?

You have set out the external factors, and the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill has been mentioned. The bill’s original financial memorandum that was presented to the committee projected the cost as being between £644 million and £1.2 billion over five years. Thank goodness that the committee, before I was a member, knocked it back, because we subsequently received information that showed that, had the committee allowed things to go forward as they stood, the cost would actually have been between £1.8 billion and £3.9 billion over 10 years. We are talking about cost control and scrutiny. That does not sound as though there is reasonable scrutiny of the policies that the Government is producing, with it being given the advice that it requires.

Okay.