Meeting of the Parliament 14 January 2016
No—I really am running out of time.
We—including the minister—would be wise to listen to the views of those experts. They believe that the Scottish Fiscal Commission should be able to develop its own framework of analysis, data sources and methodology and to originate its own independent forecasts. The Finance Committee agrees, but regrettably the Scottish Government does not yet agree. I respectfully ask the Government to think again.
Frankly, the question of who challenges the commission is complete nonsense. Parliament, Government and external experts will all fulfil that role, so I respectfully ask the Government to think again. When we look at the OECD’s recommended principles for financial institutions and at examples around the world, we see that the Scottish Government is much too limited in its approach to the Fiscal Commission. We should seek to be the best.
Scotland is on the verge of gaining substantial new powers over taxation and welfare, and with new powers come new responsibilities. We should be open and transparent so that the people of Scotland have confidence in the stewardship of the nation’s finances. To do that, we need a truly independent body to provide economic analysis and forecasting that will scrutinise Government, whatever colour that Government might be.
16:03