Meeting of the Parliament 07 October 2015
The report contains many important recommendations, all of which I agree with. I suppose that the most controversial part relates to the Fiscal Commission, and we should welcome the fact that the convener and other SNP members have been willing to challenge the Government both on the need for the commission to carry out its own forecasts, and through the committee’s recommendation that the commission should judge
“the performance of the Scottish Government against its fiscal targets”
and assess the
“sustainability of the public finances.”
I have to say that I have become a little concerned by the way in which the commission appears to be acting as much as advisers as independent scrutineers; that needs to be addressed in the forthcoming bill.
Intergovernmental relations form another important part of the report. Just by chance, the Devolution (Further Powers) Committee published a report on that very matter yesterday. Although we cannot debate that report this afternoon, I think that its main theme can be summarised in one phrase: the importance of far more parliamentary scrutiny of such matters. That clearly chimes with a main theme of this debate, particularly as articulated by Jackie Baillie. Both it and the Finance Committee are absolutely clear that the existing institutions for intergovernmental relations are not fit for purpose and, crucially, the Finance Committee has made the recommendation, from which Gavin Brown dissented, that
“consideration be given to establishing an independent body to advise on the calculation of the block grant.”