Meeting of the Parliament 31 October 2024
I will come on to talk about that point, but we have identified that it is for Parliament and its committees to take a view, in the context of the discussion that we are having and the FPAC’s report, as to how they wish to proceed on bills that have already been introduced and are before Parliament. It is of course important to recognise that, with regard to procedure, the debate does not impact on the ability of any member to introduce a bill and take it through parliamentary process as appropriate.
Although we recognise the value of a review of SPCB-supported bodies, it is for Parliament to agree to create an ad hoc committee to conduct that review. Any decision on that point will obviously need to consider the practicalities and capacity of MSPs, some of whom are already serving on multiple committees and, of course, the role of the SPCB itself in such a review.
In regard to a moratorium, the Scottish Government is happy to support a moratorium by not introducing any proposals to establish new bodies or to expand the remit of existing ones while the review, which should be completed by June 2025, is under way. We recognise the need that the committee has identified to bring some structure into the commissioner landscape and to address the complexity that exists.
However, with a number of bills that were introduced to Parliament before the committee’s inquiry concluded, the scrutiny process is already well under way and proposals have been built on prior consultation. The First Minister and I recognise that it is now for the Parliament to intervene and take a decision on those bills, respecting the lead committees’ roles in scrutinising proposed legislation that is in their remit.
There are some recommendations in the report specifically for the Scottish Government to action, which I want to highlight today. The committee asks the Government to
“set out how it plans to use this report to ‘set the tone’ for the Scottish Government’s wider review of the public body landscape”.
As a responsible Government, especially in a challenging financial climate, we must ensure that the resources that we have work as hard as they can to improve outcomes and reduce inequality, now and in the future. Frankly put, any pound that we spend on back-office functions and creating or setting up new commissioners or public bodies is a pound that we cannot spend on front-line services and supporting the people who depend on us for those services.
We are already implementing a number of actions to support reform. I previously mentioned the ministerial control framework; we are also continually assessing and reviewing the public body landscape. Our message to public bodies is clear: we should not follow existing operational practices if public services can work more efficiently by adopting new arrangements, and we should not maintain the current public body landscape if we can secure savings and improved service delivery by rationalising public bodies.
Earlier this afternoon, I met chief executives of non-departmental public bodies and had a great discussion about those points. Over the summer, we collected from NDPBs and wider public bodies a significant amount of data on their operating costs, which we intend to publish in the near future.