Chamber and committees

Good morning. My question is on the same point, although I am conscious that we have already covered it extensively.

When we were looking at the financial memorandum for the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill, one of the things that I found most concerning was that, despite the fact that the police had made officials aware that the costings were going to change, it did not seem, certainly from what we were told, that a huge amount of effort was being put into establishing how much those cost increases were going to be. Does that concern you?

Is there a required timescale for that?

“In a timely manner” sounds a little bit like “in due course”.

Bearing in mind the importance of productivity to Scotland, can you measure it within the civil service at the moment?

Mr Marks, I have two questions for you. Over the past few years, we have seen the minutes of Covid gold command meetings not being recorded; legal advice from the Salmond inquiry not published, and then published but not in full; and emails relating to decisions on Ferguson Marine lost or not found, then searched for and suddenly found. Minute taking and the recording of information have not been strong points of the Scottish Government. Are you confident that that has improved—

Ferguson Marine is a very good example. If there is a concern that the cost is going to go up, how quickly is that identified and reported to ministers?

Thanks for that.

I want to touch quickly on a couple of other areas. The first question is perhaps for Lesley Fraser. How do you measure productivity in the civil service, and how has it improved or not over the last few years?

And in certain areas, has it improved or stood still?

Are there any cases where they might not be?

I suppose that there is a question about outcomes, because the better known a commissioner is, the more work they might have to do and the higher their budgets might need to be. They could almost be victims of their own success, to quote a phrase. Audrey, could you give us some thoughts?