Meeting of the Parliament 31 October 2024
I heard what the minister said about that and Liz Smith will address that point on behalf of my party.
Regardless of the interpretation of either the amendments or the report and its recommendations, it would be prudent for any committee that is established by the Parliament to look at proposed bills and those that are under legislative consideration. We should set our face against ever saying that a body that has been legislated for or introduced can never be considered surplus to requirements at some future point.
The committee heard wide and varied evidence about the role, function and cost effectiveness of commissioners and supported bodies. It is vital that we continue examining those issues out of due regard for the public purse, and we should commit to doing so regularly.
The committee also heard repeated calls for sunset clauses to become commonplace when new public bodies come into being, not least to ensure that the landscape does not become cluttered or stale and that the effectiveness of commissioners and bodies is not blunted over time. Where commissioners, or any public bodies, have been, or are to be, formed with a principal role of advocating for a cause, rather than fulfilling some statutory function or requirement, it is vitally important that we continue to review them and, over time, to remove them as the causes that they champion progress to a point where there is satisfaction with whatever regulatory regime or support is provided through public policy.
Having a review now also gives Parliament an opportunity to look dispassionately at the proposed proliferation of commissioners and to ask whether, as Michael Marra said, there is a risk of overlap or duplication. Not only is that bad practice structurally but it is not in the interests of the taxpayers who fund those agencies and who are already looking at a cluttered public space in Scotland, even if they cannot necessarily name all the organisations that they are paying for.
There may not be many people watching, but, for those who are, it may be worth recapping the organisations that are already in place because of the system. We have the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland, the Standards Commission for Scotland, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, and the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland. There are also commissioners for information and human rights, and the most recent is the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner. I do not intend to go into each of those in detail, but, in general, my impression is that their functions go beyond simple advocacy.
Sarah Boyack referred to some of the proposed organisations and made the point that they, too, may have functions that go beyond simple advocacy. If we look at the list of those organisations, we will see that we are getting to the point where the fabric and role of organisations are changing. As well as the proposed patient safety commissioner, there is the victims and witnesses commissioner, the disability commissioner, the older people’s commissioner, the wellbeing and sustainable development commissioner, the future generations commissioner, and the learning disability, autism and neurodiversity commissioner.