Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Official Report 981KB pdf

Committee Announcement (National Performance Framework)

The next item of business is an announcement by the Finance and Public Administration Committee on an inquiry into the national performance framework: ambitions into action. I call Kenneth Gibson, the convener of the committee, to make the announcement.

Members will be aware that the national performance framework, which was introduced in 2007, sets out the strategic outcomes that collectively describe the kind of Scotland that it aims to create. The NPF also aims to guide the decisions and actions of national and local government, but how well does it do that? That is the subject of a Finance and Public Administration Committee inquiry that has been launched today.

Separately, a statutory review of the national outcomes of the NPF is planned for 2023. The Deputy First Minister has confirmed that engagement on that review will begin later this year. The NPF is a cross-cutting initiative of interest to the wider Parliament. Therefore, although the committee expects to lead parliamentary scrutiny of the review, other committees will wish to examine the draft outcomes and proposals that impact their portfolio areas.

In our pre-budget report, we pointed to the upcoming review as an opportunity to

“reposition the National Performance Framework at the heart of government planning, from which all priorities and plans should flow”

and to ask the Government

“to consider how the NPF could be more closely linked to budget planning.”

In his blog of 7 September 2021, “Christie 10-years on”, the Auditor General for Scotland noted that Scotland is suffering from

“a major implementation gap between policy ambitions and delivery on the ground.”

Our inquiry will build on that evidence rather than duplicate the work of the upcoming review. We want to look in more detail at how the outcomes shape Scottish Government policy aims and spending decisions and, in turn, how that drives delivery at a national and local level.

Therefore, the remit of the inquiry is to look at the current structures, processes, cultures and behaviours that are in place to help to deliver the national outcomes. The call for views in our inquiry—the national performance framework: ambitions into action—is now live on our committee webpages. We encourage submissions from all those who are listed in the NPF as having a role in delivery of the outcomes: national and local government, businesses, voluntary organisations and anyone who lives in Scotland.

We will then hold informal sessions with organisations and groups that are at the heart of delivering the national outcomes to establish the picture on the ground. We will explore those issues more in oral evidence sessions, and we plan to report our findings in September.

The NPF aims to get everyone in Scotland to work together to achieve the national outcomes, so we would also welcome views from members and committees. Members might have heard about good practice in their areas, or heard views on how delivery can be improved, while during the course of their work committees might have received evidence on delivery in their portfolio areas. Either way, we look forward to receiving those responses.