The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 1357 contributions
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 9 January 2024
Michelle Thomson
I want to move on to another area, although I appreciate that both the other panellists might have further comments on that one.
Dr Sousa, were you surprised by the allocation of money from ScotWind to resource expenditure? Would you ordinarily expect the Government to apply fiscal rules to that money?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 9 January 2024
Michelle Thomson
Thank you.
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 9 January 2024
Michelle Thomson
We have heard some comments about how we provide best value. Martin Booth started that off. However, I am sure that Richard Robinson has a view about the cost of central Government and the increase of £30 million when we see other budgets being cut. He has drawn our attention to the report about the need for workforce planning and so on, so I would appreciate his thoughts. Richard, were you surprised by that increase? What are your reflections on that aspect of the budget, in the light of the report that you produced at the back end of last year?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 9 January 2024
Michelle Thomson
Good morning, panel. I have a couple of areas that I want to explore, but I will start with one of the principles that the convener outlined, which is the focus on a greener and growing economy. We have thus far asked quite a lot of questions about the growing element, but I want to get some views on the greener element of it, perhaps in particular the low focus on capex and what impact that will have on net zero goals and just transition. In other words, to what extent will this budget enable the greener element as well as the growing element—because obviously we have supply chain considerations—and to what extent will it not?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 9 January 2024
Michelle Thomson
Professor Bell, were you surprised by the £60 million cut to the funding for the Scottish National Investment Bank? Obviously, we all want it to be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority so that it can crowd in other sources of funding—we understand that—but what is your view on that £60 million cut and how it might impact on our net zero ambitions and other areas?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 9 January 2024
Michelle Thomson
Okay. Professor Bell?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 9 January 2024
Michelle Thomson
Thank you. I suspect that my colleague Liz Smith will want to come in on that, as I know that education is an area of interest to her.
Chris Birt, a so-called just transition and the challenges of getting to net zero affect socioeconomic groupings differently. Are you concerned that the cuts to some of the spending on the ambition to get to net zero and enabling a just transition will affect people who are most in poverty or might help to push people into poverty over the longer term? If so, what are those concerns?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 9 January 2024
Michelle Thomson
Would you have expected fiscal rules to be applied to that, in effect?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 December 2023
Michelle Thomson
I am sorry to interrupt, but I suppose that you are looking at the data that is coming through and, as I heard Professor Roy say, past evidence. I am not talking about a Laffer curve tipping point, but I am trying to explore the perception of Scotland as a place to invest. Does this change anything at all in that respect?
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Meeting date: 20 December 2023
Michelle Thomson
We all agree that it is a problem that we do not know.