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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.

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Showing 60 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Committee
27 Oct 2011
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2012-13
When you were here previously you said that one of the first things that happen when efficiencies are required is the knee-jerk reaction of restructuring and getting rid of staff. I note from your introductory remarks that you are thinking seriously about doing that.You also s...
John Pentland Lab Committee
16 Nov 2011
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2012-13
Well, I have raised it. My reason for doing so is that I will now get into pointed questions with the SPCB.In these times of austerity, with pay freezes across the board—not just for MSPs but throughout the public sector—was any consideration given to the additional £171,000 t...
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Committee
28 Mar 2012
Public Services Reform and Local Government: Strand 1 (Partnerships and Outcomes)
Good morning, Mr Downie. Some witnesses have said that budget sharing would be difficult to implement, while others have told the committee that budget sharing is less important than cultural change and that, in line with the developing thinking, it is more important to concen...
John Pentland Lab Committee
11 Nov 2014
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2015-16
Unifying Police Scotland has obviously created challenges. My questions are associated with the scheme of administration and just how rigorous the SPA is in making the challenges that you have mentioned. When I read through your scheme of administration, I wondered just how ...
John Pentland Lab Committee
18 Nov 2014
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2015-16
Last year, I asked a question that was similar to the one that Elaine Murray asked you earlier. You give the impression that everything is good within the service, but when I read your report I found out that, some months into the financial year, you are asking for an addition...
John Pentland Lab Committee
27 Oct 2011
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2012-13
Efficiency has not just happened: you have been working on it for a number of years. However, most of the budget lines in your budget proposal have been increasing. Can you explain that?
John Pentland Lab Committee
07 Nov 2011
Draft Budget 2012-13 and Spending Review 2011 Scrutiny
Some weeks ago, I saw a report that we had taken something like £40 million from a miscellaneous budget to make up another budget. How many miscellaneous budgets does the Government have?
John Pentland Lab Chamber
07 Dec 2011
Autumn Budget Statement and the Scottish Economy
No, I want to move on.It is right to be concerned about the level of debt, but hysterical and excessive responses are counterproductive and have given rise to the further myth that we need to slash hard and deep, which just destroys our ability to generate the wealth with whic...
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Chamber
17 Nov 2011
Housing
Although we are all concerned about the dire state of house building, I think that we begin to part company over what should be done about the situation. I believe that there is significant and unaddressed demand for social rented housing and shared equity schemes, but both ar...
John Pentland Lab Chamber
19 Jan 2012
Local Government Elections 2012
No—I am moving on.This year, 34.5 per cent of the Scottish Government budget will go to local government; next year, the figure drops to 33.9 per cent; and the year after—2013-14—it will fall again to 33.2 per cent. Over a three-year period when total funding will drop by 2.4 ...
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Committee
25 Oct 2012
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2013-14
On page 2 of the Audit Scotland budget proposal, you state that you“are on target to deliver a further 8.5% per cent reduction”in the cost of audit in 2012-13. Your budget proposal for 2012-13 forecast a 7.75 per cent reduction. Can you explain that better-than-expected return?
John Pentland Lab Committee
25 Oct 2012
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2013-14
The commission was advised last October that significant savings had been made from Audit Scotland’s information technology investment programme, but the operating cost statement shows that there will be an increase of £34,000 in your IT budget this year. Why has the budget li...
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Committee
05 Jun 2013
Budget Strategy Phase 2014-15
You mentioned the Christie commission. How does the wider public service reform agenda assist in dealing with budget reductions? Are we being dishonest if we refuse to accept that budget cuts are a huge obstacle to effective public service reform?
John Pentland Lab Committee
10 Oct 2013
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2014-15
My other question is about the budget lines. My understanding is that you cannot carry over a surplus to the following year. I think that Hugh Henry touched on this. For example, the budget for training has increased to £405,000 for 2014-15. Am I to assume that, for the previo...
John Pentland Lab Committee
05 Nov 2013
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2014-15
I go back to Elaine Murray’s question on the criminal justice social work budget remaining static. Lillian Cringles said that, even though doing so is challenging, the service still seeks best value. I ask her for clarity. Is the service being diminished because it is still wo...
John Pentland Lab Committee
18 Nov 2014
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2015-16
I have a couple of questions. The first one is for Mr Carroll, but before I ask it, I congratulate him: it was good to hear the good old trade union view that what is happening is about budget cuts rather than efficiency savings. Given how the budget is progressing, do you exp...
John Pentland Lab Committee
27 Oct 2011
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2012-13
Yes. On page 7 of your budget proposal you identify a further £1.2 million of savings from fees that are paid to external firms for contracted audit work that is done on Audit Scotland’s behalf. How does Audit Scotland monitor the work of external firms and assure itself that ...
John Pentland Lab Committee
27 Oct 2011
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2012-13
Page 13 of the budget proposal identifies that a further headcount reduction of 18 whole-time equivalents will be required in 2013-14. A total restructuring provision of £600,000 has been set aside in the years 2012-13 to 2014-15—£300,000 in 2012-13 and £150,000 in both 2013-1...
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Chamber
06 Oct 2011
Housing
There is not enough detail in the spending review to see exactly how much money will be spent on housing. Some 40 per cent of the budget for new affordable homes is included in the local government settlement. However, the actual amount is unclear from budget documents, althou...
John Pentland Lab Committee
02 Nov 2011
Draft Budget 2012-13 and Spending Review 2011 Scrutiny
The first bullet point in section 2.2 on page 3 of your submission states:“budgets today will buy up to 20% more”.As you are probably aware, many local authorities have embarked on a school-building programme and have a framework agreement in place. You are probably aware that...
John Pentland Lab Committee
16 Nov 2011
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2012-13
Before I ask the witnesses a question, convener, I raise a concern with the committee about some comments that appeared in the papers at the weekend about our committee adviser. I am not sure whether you are aware of them. There was an article in which a spokesperson for John ...
John Pentland Lab Chamber
27 Oct 2011
Scottish Executive Question Time · Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs (Meetings)
I note the cabinet secretary’s support for free access to museums and acknowledge the view of museums and galleries that such a policy would be changed only as a last resort. However, I also note that this year the budget for the national museums and galleries is going to be c...
John Pentland Lab Chamber
15 Mar 2012
Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment Order 2012 [Draft]
Over the next three years, local government’s share of the Scottish budget will drop from 34.5 to 33.3 per cent. More than £1.5 billion is being taken away from councils, with nearly £900 million being taken away as a result of the cuts being above average.While the Scottish G...
John Pentland Lab Chamber
19 Jan 2012
Local Government Elections 2012
Thank you, Presiding Officer.For the next two years, the Scottish Government expects local government to shoulder 10 times the level of cuts that will apply elsewhere. In 2014-15, the cuts are smaller and more even, but already the damage is done, so the cumulative impact of t...
John Pentland Lab Committee
28 Mar 2012
Public Services Reform and Local Government: Strand 1 (Partnerships and Outcomes)
Previous witnesses have said that budget sharing would be difficult to implement. Obviously, there is an opinion that there are barriers out there to sharing budgets among partners. How can those barriers be overcome? Most important, is budget sharing a desirable option?
John Pentland Lab Committee
23 Jan 2013
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Annual Report
Okay. I turn now to the budget. Mr Martin, you said that your budget had been squeezed and that you had had to make efficiencies and so on. Given those circumstances, do you think it wise for you to extend your jurisdiction to a number of other areas? Will doing that reduce yo...
John Pentland Lab Committee
23 Jan 2013
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Annual Report
I have brief questions about the budget. In your budget report, you say that you have spent £163,000 on professional fees. Will you briefly tell us why that was the case? Could that service have been delivered in-house?
John Pentland Lab Committee
30 Jan 2013
Public Services Reform and Local Government: Strand 3 (Developing New Ways of Delivering Services)
Sir John, I thank you for that comment. You have certainly been suggesting that we need to try to scrutinise the budget all the way through. Does Scotland perhaps need an equivalent of the Office for Budget Responsibility?
John Pentland Lab Committee
05 Jun 2013
Budget Strategy Phase 2014-15
Are the budget cuts an obstacle to public service reform?
John Pentland Lab Committee
05 Jun 2013
Budget Strategy Phase 2014-15
Again, do you think that public service reform will be slowed because of budget cuts?
John Pentland Lab Committee
05 Jun 2013
Budget Strategy Phase 2014-15
What has been the real-terms change in local government revenue and capital allocations since 2007? You are probably aware that there has been a health warning about the impact of ring-fenced funds being incorporated, the underfunded council tax freeze and the police and fire ...
John Pentland Lab Committee
05 Jun 2013
Budget Strategy Phase 2014-15
With high street shops and businesses closing, can you explain the Government’s approach to non-domestic rates, particularly the rationale behind its forecasting for increases in non-domestic rates income in 2013-14 and 2014-15 as set out in the 2013-14 draft budget?
John Pentland Lab Committee
05 Jun 2013
Budget Strategy Phase 2014-15
It is clear from the evidence that we have received today that local government is facing challenging times because of the budget cuts. Will the cuts have an impact on the wider public services reform agenda?
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Committee
10 Oct 2013
Audit Scotland Autumn Budget Revision 2013-14
In your letter of 13 September 2013 to the convener you highlight that interest and penalties might arise from backdated VAT, although that is still to be confirmed by HMRC. Can you provide an update on the position with regard to penalties and interest and can you offer us an...
John Pentland Lab Committee
10 Oct 2013
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2014-15
The bulk of Audit Scotland’s income comes from fees charged to public bodies. Table 3 on page 9 of your budget proposal shows that the budgeted income from charges to further education colleges has fallen from £512,000 to £408,000. Can Audit Scotland explain that change in for...
John Pentland Lab Committee
10 Oct 2013
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2014-15
I have a supplementary question. Diane McGiffen identified the anticipated spend on training. How much does Audit Scotland set aside for absences from its total budget?
John Pentland Lab Committee
10 Oct 2013
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2014-15
How much then does absence cost in your budget?
John Pentland Lab Committee
10 Oct 2013
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2014-15
Have the absence levels improved over the years, or are you still setting aside the same 3, 4 or 5 per cent of your overall budget?
John Pentland Lab Committee
10 Oct 2013
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2014-15
I do not doubt for a minute that training is made available, but I am asking whether the budget request is solely spent on training. I would not like to think that some of the £405,000 that is earmarked for training next year will be spent somewhere else.
John Pentland Lab Committee
10 Oct 2013
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2014-15
It would be good if you could provide the commission with a couple of examples of how the training budget is spent.
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Committee
05 Nov 2013
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2014-15
No, I am going back to the budget.
John Pentland Lab Committee
05 Nov 2013
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2014-15
Lillian Cringles mentioned that some gaps are appearing because of the static budget. What gaps are appearing and who is filling them?
John Pentland Lab Committee
05 Nov 2013
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2014-15
As I said, I am beginning to wonder why you are here because, whenever we have asked a question on the budget, you have said that it relates to operational matters. I think that you have probably been quite selective in how you have answered our questions.Questions have been a...
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Committee
29 May 2013
Budget Strategy Phase 2014-15
Mr Baillie, I want to tailor my questions to comments that you have made in the past to find out whether things have improved or indeed have got worse. In 2009, you said with regard to the poor condition of council buildings:“While cutting building maintenance may seem attract...
John Pentland Lab Committee
29 May 2013
Budget Strategy Phase 2014-15
You have also said that as local government is a labour-intensive sector, budget cuts make staff cuts inevitable. In the past, you warned that that could lead to key skills being lost and recently you highlighted that public bodies have spent £561 million on losing 14,000 staf...
John Pentland Lab Committee
29 May 2013
Budget Strategy Phase 2014-15
Organisations such as yours sometimes have a good habit of lobbing a grenade into the mix. As Pat Watters rightly said, “Talk is cheap; it is action that costs.” With that in mind, do you believe that even if the councils’ share of the Scottish budget could be maintained with ...
John Pentland Lab Committee
29 May 2013
Budget Strategy Phase 2014-15
Professor Kerley, in the past you have commented:“Just calling something strategic does not make it so. ... Decision makers need guidance—not rote templates—as to how they make choices between various options for resource allocation. Without such clear guidance then the game t...
John Pentland Lab Committee
11 Nov 2014
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2015-16
I believe that you have a £58 million capital budget for this year, but that, to date, only £4.5 or £5 million of it has been spent. Considering that we are only six months away from the end of the financial year, can you give us some assurance that that money will be spent?
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Committee
18 Nov 2014
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2015-16
Victim Support Scotland depends on support from other agencies, and none more so than the Scottish Police Authority, which is making difficult decisions about efficiencies. What areas do you think will be under pressure from some of those efficiencies or cuts? Moreover, what i...
John Pentland Lab Committee
18 Nov 2014
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2015-16
Your submission says that if there were a “real term decrease to the SPA budget, we would welcome further information from Police Scotland as to how they intend to fulfil this financial commitment” with regard to “domestic violence, sexual crimes and human trafficking”.
John Pentland Lab Committee
25 Nov 2014
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2015-16
You said that you are still working on the budget, but are you able to tell the committee whether any of the reductions will come from reducing the number of civilian staff? Will there be further closures, reduced hours for police stations and control room closures? What will ...
John Pentland Lab Committee
25 Nov 2014
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2015-16
The questions are really quite important. First, Sir Stephen mentioned in a response to Alison McInnes that he is quite confident that £1.1 billion of savings is achievable by 2026. How will you measure that, given Vic Emery’s comment last week that you do not know what polic...
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Committee
05 Aug 2014
Commission on Women Offenders
When the Howard League Scotland asked the cabinet secretary whether the proposals for HMP Inverclyde were in keeping with the commission’s overall aspirations, he replied that decisions about the prison’s size and design were operational matters for the Scottish Prison Service...
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab Committee
30 Oct 2013
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2014-15
My question is for Mr McConnell and anyone else who wants to add a supplementary answer. The Scottish Prison Service budget for current expenditure on prisons has increased by 8 per cent, which is claimed to reflect additional costs relating to prisoner numbers as well as risi...
John Pentland Lab Committee
30 Oct 2013
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2014-15
Mr McConnell said that the Scottish Prison Service’s resource is sufficient. Are we to believe that, every year, the £5 million that is identified within his budget for criminal justice social work services is given to those services? 11:30
John Pentland Lab Committee
24 Nov 2015
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2016-17 (Education)
In protecting teacher numbers and pay and conditions, local authorities have to look elsewhere for budget cuts, which has the adverse effect of adding to teachers’ workloads. Will you expand on what that workload is? Is it management, support or something else?
John Pentland Lab Committee
10 Dec 2015
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2016/17
Appendix 1, which concerns operating cost trends, shows that Audit Scotland’s expenditure on private firms has decreased marginally year on year from 2013-14’s actual expenditure to 2016-17’s proposed budget. In the same period, Audit Scotland’s gross administrative costs have...
John Pentland Lab Committee
10 Dec 2015
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2016/17
The commission is aware that Audit Scotland pays private sector firms a set fee for an audit appointment, and it is for the firms to plan and deliver their work within that fee. That creates an incentive for those firms to be as efficient as possible in order to maximise their...
John Pentland Lab Committee
10 Dec 2015
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2016/17
I want to go back to the first question on the fee strategy. I think that there was an assumption that the review would have been completed and in our hands by now. “Assume” and “assumption” are among the most common words in the budget proposal. We know that that means that ...
John Pentland Lab Committee
23 Feb 2016
School Spending and Educational Attainment
I thank the witnesses for giving us specific answers and for referring to peripheral services. Will the cutback in the budget have an impact on the attainment gap? In particular, we have to keep up teacher numbers, but will the budget reduction have an impact on the support th...
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Committee

Meeting of the Commission 27 October 2011

27 Oct 2011 · S4 · Scottish Commission for Public Audit
Item of business
Audit Scotland Budget Proposal 2012-13
Pentland, John Lab Motherwell and Wishaw Watch on SPTV
When you were here previously you said that one of the first things that happen when efficiencies are required is the knee-jerk reaction of restructuring and getting rid of staff. I note from your introductory remarks that you are thinking seriously about doing that.You also said that you have considered Audit Scotland’s efficiency for a number of years. However, page 15 of your operating costs statement shows that most of your budget lines, with the exception of a pension adjustment in 2010-11, have increased. Can you explain that?My third question is similar to what Hugh Henry asked about and is on the staff vacancy factor, which you intend to reduce from 4 per cent to 2 per cent and which will increase your budget by £155,000. I am trying to match that figure to the figure on page 7 on staffing costs. It is probably clear, but I cannot understand it. You state:“The cost savings generated from these reductions together with the effect of grade mix changes from business restructuring total £540k. These savings are partly offset by increased costs arising from pay growth, £245k and the effects of reducing our vacancy factor, £155k.”Does reducing your staff vacancy factor give a saving of £155,000, or has that been used to balance another bit of the budget?

In the same item of business

The Convener SNP
Agenda item 2 is consideration of Audit Scotland’s detailed budget proposal for the financial year 2012-13. The commission will report to the Parliament on t...
Mr Robert Black (Auditor General for Scotland)
I start with an apology for being a couple of minutes late, convener. We have been in the building for some time, but on the other side of the security scree...
The Convener SNP
Thank you. I will begin our questions with one about the ambitious and obviously welcome savings targets that have been presented. Mr Black said that retenti...
Mr Black
I can give an absolute assurance on that, and I will offer a comment or two, if I may. We did not start the efficiency programme in the near past; we have ta...
The Convener SNP
The second-bottom paragraph on page 3 of the budget proposal states:“we have reduced the time spent in councils on corporate scrutiny work by 39%”.That is qu...
Mr Black
All the scrutiny bodies have been working on that in partnership on behalf of the Accounts Commission, and Audit Scotland co-ordinates the whole process. All...
Russell Frith (Audit Scotland)
The 39 per cent relates to the time that was spent with the councils. It should not necessarily be taken that there has been a 39 per cent reduction in the t...
Hugh Henry (Renfrewshire South) (Lab) Lab
I want to follow on from the convener’s line of questioning and to ask for clarification. On page 4 of the budget proposal, under the heading “Restructuring ...
Diane McGiffen (Audit Scotland)
We have been looking at the mix of skills and grades in the organisation for some time. As we have invested in new technology, introduced new audit practices...
Hugh Henry Lab
On the 23 staff, what mix of posts is involved?
Diane McGiffen
The posts will cover different grades across the organisation.
Hugh Henry Lab
Can you give us details? You could send them at a later date.
Diane McGiffen
I can let you know our plans to restructure the business. We have not at this stage earmarked post X or post Y for the reductions. We are still reshaping the...
Hugh Henry Lab
Does that not beg a question? If you know that you want to shed 23 posts but you do not know which ones, how can you guarantee that the work will be done? Yo...
Diane McGiffen
It is not that we do not know what our targets are, but we are not yet at a point where we have said, “These particular posts are the ones that we will delet...
Mr Black
To build on what Diane McGiffen said, what this means in reality is that we are running a recruitment freeze for any posts that become vacant and we do not k...
Hugh Henry Lab
The situation does pose some questions. If you do not know which posts will be deleted and if people are entitled to make up their own minds, as you said, ho...
Mr Black
We do not know 100 per cent, but we have a pretty good idea.
John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab
When you were here previously you said that one of the first things that happen when efficiencies are required is the knee-jerk reaction of restructuring and...
Mr Black
Those are points of some detail, so I ask Diane McGiffen to go through them.
Diane McGiffen
I will take the people costs element first; if what I say does not answer your question, please let me know and we will explore it further. The staff numbers...
John Pentland Lab
I have heard the same comments from staff back at the local authority when they do that kind of analysis. It is obviously something that I will have to sit d...
Mr Black
I will build on that with regard to some of the numbers that you mentioned earlier. The savings from five posts is £540,000. We have had to put in an element...
John Pentland Lab
Efficiency has not just happened: you have been working on it for a number of years. However, most of the budget lines in your budget proposal have been incr...
Mr Black
Russell Frith is a master of the detailed budget lines, so perhaps he can take us through one or two of the elements.
Russell Frith
Some of the budget lines have been increasing, but the actuals have not been going up by as much. For example, the total administrative cost line on page 15 ...
John Pentland Lab
The biggest efficiency—I do not know whether it is through effort—is the pension adjustment.
Mr Black
Do you have a question about the pension adjustment?
John Pentland Lab
No, I was just summing up my own question.
Russell Frith
We have never regarded the pension adjustment as an efficiency. It was a one-off reduction in costs in 2010-11 that came about only as a result of a change i...