Meeting of the Parliament 31 October 2024
I thank the Finance and Public Administration Committee for bringing this important issue to the chamber and for its excellent report on the commissioner landscape. I was delighted to take part in evidence sessions in front of the committee on the matter. It is important to recognise that the committee’s work on this issue is a key part of the wider public service reform agenda that I lead for the Government. I will talk more about that as I go through my remarks.
The Scottish Government very much welcomes the committee’s report and I am interested to hear views from across the chamber on its contents. I have responded to the report on behalf of the Government. However, I will set out the Government’s position on the key recommendations in the report and our approach to wider public sector reform.
The committee recommends
“a ‘root and branch’ review of the ... commissioner landscape”
and
“a moratorium on creating any new SPCB supported bodies, or expanding the remit of existing bodies”.
It plans to complete its work by June of next year.
The Scottish Government agrees that any new public body—whether that is a commissioner or a public body across the wider landscape—should be created only as a last resort, and we have introduced the ministerial control framework to robustly assess any Government proposals for a new public body. I will say more on that point later.
We therefore support the intention of the report and a drive to improve governance, accountability and efficiency across the parliamentary commissioner landscape, and we will engage in any review of the framework for commissioners and provide any information requested if that is the direction that Parliament agrees to.
I note that decisions on the establishment of any new SPCB-supported bodies are ultimately a matter for Parliament. The status and role of certain office-holders, such as regulatory or quasi-judicial bodies, make it inappropriate for Scottish ministers to have any involvement in their appointment or any arrangements for holding their offices to account.