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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 4 May 2021
  6. Current session: 13 May 2021 to 19 September 2025
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Displaying 2378 contributions

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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

Willie Coffey

Is there a wee bit of work to be done in illustrating to some authorities what transformation looks like and what it means? Is there an issue there? Is that one of the barriers?

10:15  

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

Willie Coffey

Okay, great. My other question is an interesting one. It comes from what the chief executive of Clackmannanshire Council, Nikki Bridle, said last week. I had better use her words. She said that, at the same time as councils are

“transforming and reforming, our auditors ... need to be in the same space”,

and that, in terms of evaluating new and complex models,

“some of the traditional skill sets might not be as relevant”.—[Official Report, Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, 9 September 2025; c 44.]

I had to use the exact words—I hope you do not mind. I would be interested in your response to that comment.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

Willie Coffey

Do the councils always agree with your recommendations?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

Willie Coffey

Good morning. I want to ask about the community dimension of the transformation of local government services. Andrew Burns, you mentioned the five themes of vision, planning, governance, collaboration and innovation. How far do councils reach out to communities to get their participation in transforming local government services?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

Willie Coffey

Have we seen enough of that early engagement across the board? For example, the committee has seen great work in North Ayrshire on community wealth building, where the early participation of communities that Andrew Burns talked about is really paying dividends. As I understand it, great stuff is going on in Fife as well, which I think is transformative. Are you seeing enough of that across the board to push the agenda a bit faster?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

Willie Coffey

All councils have an internal audit function throughout each council. For many years, when I was on the Public Audit Committee, we focused on the duties and roles of internal audit compared with external audit. Should any council’s internal audit function come up with the same ideas and proposals that are suggested in the Accounts Commission’s reports? Why should we need another layer that, in effect, says the same thing?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

National Good Food Nation Plan

Meeting date: 9 September 2025

Willie Coffey

Cabinet secretary, I recently heard of a case in East Ayrshire in which a local smaller supplier bid for a particular contract but lost out to a bigger supplier that could provide a much lower price, despite all the local criteria and so on being in favour of the smaller supplier.

Do you think that the boundaries are clear enough for councils to consider bids from and offer contracts to local smaller suppliers that usually—inevitably—offer a higher price? Some councils maybe feel compelled to opt for the lower price to satisfy procurement guidelines, but there are criteria in there that would allow them to vary that, should they so choose. Do you think that that whole area is clear enough, or does it need to be tidied up in any way?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

National Good Food Nation Plan

Meeting date: 9 September 2025

Willie Coffey

The convener asked a question about resourcing. Did you mention a figure? Has any money been allocated to authorities to give them a kick-start and help them to develop the plans by giving them a little bit of resource to put behind that?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 9 September 2025

Willie Coffey

Good morning. That leads us nicely into the wider issue of transformational change that the Accounts Commission, Audit Scotland and others have been talking about for many years. I want to give colleagues an opportunity to share a couple of examples from each of their local authorities with the committee about what transformational change means to them. What have you achieved so far that you could fairly describe as transformational change? How do you see it developing in the future? Mr Burr, I will, again, start with you, as you are sitting in front of us.

11:30  

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 9 September 2025

Willie Coffey

Thanks, Thomas. Those were comprehensive answers from everybody.