Committee
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 17 September 2024
17 Sep 2024 · S6 · Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Item of business
Disability Commissioner (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Jeremy Balfour MSP
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Obviously, it is one office, but the commissioner would have support staff and having the right team behind them would be important. Clearly, the commissioner could not do everything on day 1, and we have to be realistic about that. I hope that the first thing that whoever gets the job would do would be to go out and listen to the disability community. It is not about the community coming to them; they would go to meet the community. That means going up to the communities that Ms Karen Adam represents, and going down to the Borders. It cannot just be a central Scotland thing, however important that area is. They need to visit the breadth of Scotland. Without prejudging it, I think that some very obvious themes would come quickly to that individual, and they would have to set out their work programme to deal with them. The evidence is interesting. Some people are saying that the commissioner would have too much power and others are saying that they would not have enough. If the bill goes beyond stage 1, I would be really interested to work with colleagues round this table and with other people in Parliament to work that out better. As I said to Ms Tweed, we must ensure that the commissioners are talking to each other. Before a major inquiry was carried out or something was done, I would expect the disability commissioner to go to the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland and the other commissioners to say, for example, “I’m thinking of doing this. Have you got any expertise on it, or are you doing anything around this? Let’s work together if we need to.” It is a crowded landscape, but Scotland is a pretty small country, and we can talk to each other.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Under our next agenda item, we will continue taking evidence on the Disability Commissioner (Scotland) Bill. I refer members to papers 1 and 2. I welcome to ...
Jeremy Balfour (Lothian) (Con)
Con
Thank you, convener. Good morning, colleagues. I thank the committee for all the work that it has done to date in considering my bill. I have been following ...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you very much for your opening statement. The committee has heard strong support for a disability commissioner, particularly from disabled people. Why ...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
Interestingly, there was an argument for a disability commissioner before Covid, but, as a consequence of Covid, disabled people have been left behind by pub...
The Convener
SNP
You told the Finance and Public Administration Committee that you were concerned about the timing of its inquiry into the commissioner landscape and how it m...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
Clearly, it is not ideal timing for that report to come out, but it raises an important issue that we need to explore. In the past two and a half years, all...
The Convener
SNP
Concern has been expressed that setting up a disability commissioner could divert resources from work in other areas, such as the Scottish Government’s new d...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
It is safe to say that none of the members who are here was in the Parliament when the Commissioner for Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill went throug...
The Convener
SNP
Given the financial situation that the Scottish Government has set out, is it feasible to set up a disability commissioner at this time?
Jeremy Balfour
Con
Absolutely. I appreciate that £1 million or £1.5 million sounds like a lot of money, but in a £30 billion budget, it is not so much. When the Scottish Govern...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you.
Evelyn Tweed (Stirling) (SNP)
SNP
Good morning, Mr Balfour. Thank you for your opening remarks. There are concerns about the duplication of work, which you mentioned in your opening statemen...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
That is an important question. A lot more needs to be done on back-office sharing among all commissioners. We do not need human resources or accountancy func...
Evelyn Tweed
SNP
A frequent issue raised by disability organisations in response to the call for views was that, although there are several statutory organisations that promo...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
As I said to the convener, if you look at education, health, social services and even things such as changing places toilets, you see that there is mass disc...
Evelyn Tweed
SNP
Thank you.
Maggie Chapman (North East Scotland) (Green)
Green
Good morning, Mr Balfour. Thank you for your opening comments and for the time that you have previously given me to discuss your bill. It is much appreciated...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
Without labouring the point, the present structures simply are not doing it. I do not see any reason why, if the bill goes away and everyone goes back to nor...
Maggie Chapman
Green
Many of us in this place are pretty scunnered at the lack of a human rights bill and incorporation of UN treaties into Scots law. I get that very clear conne...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
At the moment, it is the only thing on the table. I am not convinced that the model of having each disability covered by a different individual or by a sub-g...
Maggie Chapman
Green
When we heard from the minister, she spoke about mainstreaming. We heard in other evidence—you will have picked this up as well—about some of the tensions ar...
Jeremy Balfour MSP
Obviously, it is one office, but the commissioner would have support staff and having the right team behind them would be important. Clearly, the commission...
Paul O’Kane (West Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
I want to pick up the issues relating to the interaction of your bill and the proposed bill on learning disabilities, autism and neurodivergence. Were I to b...
Jeremy Balfour MSP
The simple answer to that question is yes, there is an opportunity to do that. Last Thursday, there was a meeting in the Parliament—I think that you attended...
Paul O’Kane
Lab
Would you be concerned that one commissioner would have too much to look at? Say that we had a disability commissioner who covered absolutely everything, inc...
Jeremy Balfour MSP
I actually think that it is really helpful for a disability commissioner not to have a definition of any condition, because that means that they can go where...
Paul O’Kane
Lab
I will push you on that point. People want the commissioner to have investigatory powers, and the bill has covered that aspect. However, many people are seek...
Jeremy Balfour MSP
As big as my ego is, I do not claim that everything in my bill is perfect and that it needs to go through without amendment. We need to look at that. I repea...
Paul O’Kane
Lab
I will play devil’s advocate for a moment. You have listed—quite rightly—some of the challenges that we face: progress on the LDAN bill is being stalled, the...
Jeremy Balfour MSP
Ultimately, this Parliament is sovereign; it has to make the decisions. That is the starting point, but, ultimately, as politicians, we can say yes or no to ...