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Every contribution to the Official Report — chamber and committee — searchable in one place. Pulled from data.parliament.scot, indexed for full-text search, linked through to every MSP.

129
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2,354,908
Hansard contributions
1999–2026
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Official Report

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Showing 33 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
Yes, it is. We paid to maintain a state of readiness, whether that capacity involved IT people, resources or database maintenance. The £50,000 cost allowed us to introduce the variable rate.
Andy Kerr Lab Chamber
24 Nov 2010
Scottish Variable Rate of Income Tax
John Swinney chose to take a different decision. That must be cast in the light of what he has told us throughout his time as cabinet secretary. The draft budget, which I presume that he signed off, says:“Our opportunities to vary taxes are limited to the Scottish Variable Rat...
The Minister for Health and Community Care (Mr Andy Kerr): Lab Committee
09 Nov 2004
Work Force Planning Inquiry
I will take a few moments to put the matter in some context. I welcome the committee's work on work force planning, and I will explain some of the progress that we have been trying to make on planning for the future of the work force in the health service.I have watched and li...
Mr Kerr: Lab Committee
07 Nov 2006
Health Board Elections (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
I cannot give you figures off the top of my head. The attendances at annual reviews have been widely variable. I recall that the NHS Tayside meeting was fairly busy although other meetings were not so busy. I will reflect on that and get back to you if we can provide informati...
Andy Kerr (East Kilbride) (Lab) Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
My evidence will be brief. I refer members to the note of 7 July 2003 from Richard Dennis. Following the election in that year, I had a straightforward role, which was to make a decision based on the advice that I had been given. In his note, Richard Dennis talked about mainta...
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
I have a fairly simple point to add. If a party campaigns to either increase or decrease taxation in Scotland, it will present a budget in some form that would achieve that objective. I think that your question is based on a technical premise, but the politics would dictate th...
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
We should bear in mind what Lord McConnell said in response to your previous question about predicting the cost of information technology systems, which is a difficult thing to do. Costs can come down as well as go up. The note from Richard Dennis of 7 July 2003 indicates that...
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
Yes.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
What checks were made? We had an agreement with HMRC to undertake the work and, if any substantive change required us to be notified, that would have been done. There was certainly an assumption, and reality, that we would expect the service to be delivered because nobody told...
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
To answer the question directly, I was quite happy not just with the written information that I received, which is contained in the note of 7 July, but with the discussions that I had with officials regarding the whole mechanism. I recall having a meeting with officials regard...
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
That is loose language that does not describe the situation in any way. I would like to question those individuals who used that language. I would not have signed away £200,000-worth of Scottish taxpayers’ money for a mothballed system, but I would have signed money away for a...
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
The substantive documents relating to my involvement—the minute that I received and my response—have been produced. All that is missing are the arrangements for the visit to East Kilbride, which I expected to see. I cannot remember when I made the visit, but I was definitely t...
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
Such discussions happened fairly regularly, for example in relation to national negotiations. We would have an input into the negotiations and state our position.If I had ever concluded that Scottish taxpayers were not getting their fair shake, the first place that I would hav...
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
First, I know from the minutes that I have seen that we reduced the cost of the capacity to call down the system and put it into use within the 10-month notice period. Secondly, HMRC, or the Inland Revenue as it was, was taking its own efficiency measures at the time—although ...
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
To be honest, I am not sure whether that part of the Inland Revenue offices is still there, but there was a physical space to allow the call centre to be used.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
It was HMRC’s system that we were paying for, convener. It had capacity, because the system emanated not from the Scottish Government but from the Inland Revenue, which is now HMRC.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
Sorry?
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
I did not see a traditional call centre.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
I did not see a room with desks, headphones and computers. I saw a space that a call centre would occupy, should it be required.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
No, it cost us £50,000 per annum, which was £200,000 over the lifetime of a Government. That was a price worth paying to support the principles of the referendum decision in 1997.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
I am referring to what I know.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
The note from Richard Dennis of 7 July 2003 said:“maintaining the infrastructure at the ten-months’ state will be ... £200,000 across the life of the Parliament”,which was a substantial reduction.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
An important point is that if I had not decided to spend £50,000 per annum, retrofitting to allow the SVR to be used would have cost us £10 million. The decision was good financial management and judgment.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
Yes.
Andy Kerr Lab Committee
25 Jan 2011
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
It has been a pleasure.
Andy Kerr (East Kilbride) (Lab) Lab Chamber
24 Nov 2010
Scottish Variable Rate of Income Tax
We have all listened carefully to the cabinet secretary in this debate. Let us remind ourselves that this debate is happening only because someone else from another Parliament drew the matter to our attention. I certainly believe that the cabinet secretary has offered no defen...
Andy Kerr Lab Chamber
24 Nov 2010
Scottish Variable Rate of Income Tax
If members care to read the document further, they will see that it shows that release 1, which would have cost £227,000, could have kept the whole situation running. Interruption.
Andy Kerr Lab Chamber
24 Nov 2010
Scottish Variable Rate of Income Tax
I am happy to give way.
Andy Kerr Lab Chamber
24 Nov 2010
Scottish Variable Rate of Income Tax
The state of readiness is clarified in the policy document that we have received today, which says:“The advice from HMRC’s IT partners is that even if the decision is not to invoke SVR during the life of the coming Scottish Parliament it is recommended that the work associated...
Andy Kerr Lab Chamber
24 Nov 2010
Scottish Variable Rate of Income Tax
We are now on day 6 of this fiasco. It began with excuses about letters from Michael Moore not revealing the truth and continued with the claim that it was Calman’s problem. Then we heard that our briefcases were not big enough to take the information. Today, we have got some ...
Andy Kerr Lab Chamber
24 Nov 2010
Scottish Variable Rate of Income Tax
Perhaps Alasdair Allan can explain why we did not know about the decision.
Andy Kerr Lab Chamber
24 Nov 2010
Scottish Variable Rate of Income Tax
There we have the mothball defence again. We ensured—Interruption—the information is in the documents if members care to read them. For the sake of £50,000, at the drop of a hat, and within 10 months, the Parliament could have used the power. Interruption.
Andy Kerr Lab Chamber
24 Nov 2010
Scottish Variable Rate of Income Tax
The cabinet secretary removed that power from the Parliament. He thought that he was better—he knew better—than 1.5 million Scots. How many of his Cabinet colleagues agreed with the decision? Why do they not simply tell us that the main perpetrator of the deception was the Sco...
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Committee

Finance Committee 25 January 2011

25 Jan 2011 · S3 · Finance Committee
Item of business
Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry
Kerr, Andy Lab East Kilbride Watch on SPTV
Yes, it is. We paid to maintain a state of readiness, whether that capacity involved IT people, resources or database maintenance. The £50,000 cost allowed us to introduce the variable rate.

In the same item of business

The Convener SNP
Item 2 is to conclude the evidence taking on our Scottish variable rate inquiry. First, I welcome to the committee three former finance ministers: Andy Kerr ...
Jack McConnell (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab
I want to outline briefly, mostly from memory, what took place in summer 1999 when I was appointed as the first finance minister in the new Parliament and th...
Andy Kerr (East Kilbride) (Lab) Lab
My evidence will be brief. I refer members to the note of 7 July 2003 from Richard Dennis. Following the election in that year, I had a straightforward role,...
Tom McCabe (Hamilton South) (Lab) Lab
Good afternoon, everyone. Papers on the Scottish variable rate that the former finance ministers who are present today have requested and papers that the Sco...
The Convener SNP
The cabinet secretary will have the opportunity to respond when he appears before the committee.HM Revenue and Customs told the committee that it could“put t...
Jack McConnell Lab
I should probably answer that question, given that I presented to Parliament the bill to establish the budget cycle back in 1999, as you will remember. The b...
Tom McCabe Lab
I am sure that the committee understands the chronology, but it is probably important to clarify it. An incoming Administration may announce its intentions i...
Andy Kerr Lab
I have a fairly simple point to add. If a party campaigns to either increase or decrease taxation in Scotland, it will present a budget in some form that wou...
Jack McConnell Lab
I am sorry to come back in again, convener, but it is important to remember—I have always been keen to ensure that we are clear about this—that it is possibl...
The Convener SNP
Given the evidence that we heard from HMRC, it still bothers me that, time-wise, the bits do not quite fit.Given that it is for the Scottish Parliament to de...
Jack McConnell Lab
The arrangements comprise the following: the creation of the legislation, which happens in the cycle every autumn, as you say; the possibility or—in my view—...
The Convener SNP
I throw the questioning open to members.
Joe FitzPatrick (Dundee West) (SNP) SNP
I am looking back to 1999, so I think that my question is for Lord McConnell, but if I have got that wrong, the other former finance ministers might want to ...
Jack McConnell Lab
I will comment on what happened in the year before the Scottish election in May 1999. I do not have access to the papers on that, because the Parliament had ...
Joe FitzPatrick SNP
I want to widen the question and ask about the other money. I think that we reckoned that, over the piece, £25 million was spent on the SVR. When that money ...
Andy Kerr Lab
We should bear in mind what Lord McConnell said in response to your previous question about predicting the cost of information technology systems, which is a...
Tom McCabe Lab
As I said, I was aware that discussions were on-going. I was never under any illusion that if there was to be a substantial overhaul of the infrastructure fo...
Joe FitzPatrick SNP
That deals with the issue as far as the capital is concerned. At the end of the day, we had no assurances.As far as readiness is concerned, Sarah Walker told...
Jack McConnell Lab
Who is Sarah Walker?
Joe FitzPatrick SNP
She is from HMRC—she gave evidence two weeks ago.
Jack McConnell Lab
That is different from what the convener said. The convener said that HMRC’s evidence was that if a decision had been made in May or June 2007, it would have...
Tom McCabe Lab
I might be able to clarify that. As I said, the position was that the discussions were on-going. Officials were not in a position in which they felt that the...
The Convener SNP
Let me clarify something. Tom McCabe said to Sarah Walker:“But it was possible to implement the system in 2008—you could have done it.”Sarah Walker replied:“...
Tom McCabe Lab
If that is what she said, convener, she may have been confused. Her reply contradicts the ministerial briefing note that was given to incoming ministers on 1...
The Convener SNP
That will be noted in the Official Report.
Joe FitzPatrick SNP
I think that we are taking off, because that was not the point that I was trying to make. My question was whether given Sarah Walker’s evidence to the commit...
Jack McConnell Lab
Yes.
Andy Kerr Lab
Yes.
Tom McCabe Lab
Yes.
Joe FitzPatrick SNP
That is useful. What checks did the ministers make over the years when they were making payments to HMRC to ensure that there was 10-month functionality, giv...