The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 629 contributions
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Alexander Stewart
I have a question for Ms Bevan. The Taith programme has done extremely well, as you have indicated and as we have heard from others. Is that because there has been real outreach and engagement and because the programme has been adapted to fit some of the criteria that you looked at with others? What support mechanism is provided? It certainly appears that the programme is successful because there is the impetus to improve, capture things, provide support, encourage and adapt.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Alexander Stewart
Professor Cardwell, you touched on the experiences of students going back and forward and the ease that there was in managing that. What are now the obstacles—if there are any—to engaging and progressing, to ensure that we have that seamless task between academia and individuals who are seeking to go to Ireland, France or wherever it might be?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Alexander Stewart
Mr Brown, you talked about the academic exchanges that are taking place, but I want to ask about business and commerce. In the past, there was a reasonable level of exchange going on between apprenticeships in organisations and businesses. Has that completely stopped or are there opportunities to ensure that a sector or a business that is looking to exchange individuals has the opportunity to do so? How is that progressing? It was relatively successful in the past, and I would like to hear your view on where you think it currently is.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Alexander Stewart
Let us look forward to what we want to achieve in your sector, to ensure that there is progress. We have heard about the new relationship that the new UK Government wants to have with the EU: it has been called a “resetting”—words of that nature have been used. Are there areas in which you see some glimmers of hope that there may be progress? Are the discussions still just rhetoric or are there real opportunities for the future?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 6 February 2025
Alexander Stewart
I want to look at where we are now with the Turing scheme. This morning, we have heard that there are some limitations in relation to the funding for the three-year period. Are any other limitations being experienced? Is the Turing scheme working in a slightly different way from what we have experienced in the past? What lessons have been learned from that process?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Alexander Stewart
My final question is about customer and client receipts. In the bulletin, you talk about them being 12 per cent—£253 million—lower in real terms than they were before the pandemic. Is there a reason why that is the case, or do councils have the opportunity to raise income by putting up some of their charges? Has it got to the stage that charges are getting too high? Is there still some room for that to be managed in a way that would get us back to the pre-pandemic position? Alternatively, is it the case that those days have gone, and the councils feel that they can go only so far, because they know that going further might end up having diminishing returns for them, as putting up charges might, at the end of the day, cost them money rather than bringing in income?
At the same time, councils have to consider what receipts they can deal with and the areas in which they can afford to do so, because that is another income stream that would have a knock-on effect in other areas. It would be good to get a flavour of what you think about those issues.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Alexander Stewart
Good morning. You have already touched on the situation in which councils find themselves with reserves. Your bulletin talks about a 5 per cent decrease in councils’ total usable reserves. Reserves have been used to balance the books in the past, but was 2023-24 a tipping point in reserve trends for many councils? Are any councils in a concerning situation in which they have low levels of reserves or have exhausted the majority of their reserves? How will they manage to sustain things?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Alexander Stewart
You have touched on councils’ ability to do short-term and medium-term financial planning, but there is an issue with long-term financial planning. You have indicated that about half the councils in Scotland do not have long-term financial planning in place. Not being able to foresee what the future holds must be a problem for them—it is very difficult, but they need a flavour of where things are going. How are you encouraging councils to do long-term planning? What would you like councils to do to ensure that they take on board your concerns and attempt—even if it is just an attempt—to get long-term financial planning in place? That might help if anything problematic comes up, because it could be managed. However, if they do not do that planning, they will not be aware of what could happen in the long term.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Alexander Stewart
You did, convener.
When we are trying to manage this process, we are all about the transformation of best value, good practice and value for money, together with the empowerment and engagement that you have talked about.
When it comes to ring-fenced money, that is sometimes allocated as a one-off or a special offer, and the money does not always get used because it might not fit the criteria of the local authority or area. That money sometimes disappears and is not used, which causes a problem for us in providing best value for money. Communities want to engage and to be empowered, but, at times, there seems to be an obstacle. My reading of the situation is that the obstacle is sometimes ring-fenced funding. Certain funding might not tick all the boxes that councils want, so they might have to use a different avenue or route to receive funding. I have seen that cause frustration in councils.
It would be good to hear your views on how we should resolve that situation, because, if we were able to unlock some funding, there would once again be more opportunities and more finance to use for communities’ priorities.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 4 February 2025
Alexander Stewart
You have also touched on the amount of debt that councils are managing. In the bulletin, you say that councils’ debt stands at almost £20 billion, which is a 15.8 per cent increase on the level of debt in 2022-23. That is a substantial amount of money and a substantial increase. At what point do the levels of debt become unsustainable for councils to manage? Are there any councils that you think are moving towards having a worrying level of debt that causes even more concerns about their ability to provide best value in the communities that they represent?