Meeting of the Parliament 18 September 2025
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am speaking today as a member of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. I begin by thanking the SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee for undertaking the inquiry. That work, alongside the inquiry that was undertaken by the Finance and Public Administration Committee have, understandably, been unsettling for the current office-holders, and the SPCB appreciates the acknowledgement of that in the report. We also welcome the recognition in the report that the bodies that are currently supported by the SPCB carry out vital functions.
The corporate body notes the committee’s conclusions relating to advocacy-type SPCB-supported bodies. I have mentioned this in a previous debate, but I want to be clear that the SPCB does not take a view on whether a new office-holder should be established. That is rightly for the Parliament to determine.
The SPCB has a statutory duty to support independent office-holders. That duty has become increasingly time consuming since 2003, during which time the number of office-holders has increased from two to eight. The mention of proposals for up to six additional new office-holders has, understandably, caused the corporate body concern, which we have raised with the Scottish ministers and the Finance and Public Administration Committee. The corporate body therefore welcomes the SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee’s work and the overall approach to create a clear strategic framework.
We welcome the acknowledgement that additional office-holders would have an impact on the corporate body and other parliamentary resources. The role of the SPCB extends far beyond agreeing annual funding for the office-holders, and additional office-holders would affect our workload, our overall budget and the workload of the officials in office-holder services.