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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 6 April 2025
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Displaying 1489 contributions

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Economy and Fair Work Committee

Registers of Scotland

Meeting date: 14 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

I suppose, though, that that takes you into delay territory. I am thinking about an example in which there has been a delay because there has been a change of circumstances with a solicitor or a client. Will a client always be able to draw on the necessary data required to meet your criteria to have the case expedited after that length of delay? I am thinking of an example from 2017.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Medium-term Financial Strategy, Economic and Fiscal Forecasts and Policy Prospectus

Meeting date: 13 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

You lead me on to a wider point, which is that it is difficult for ordinary members of the public to understand the complexity of the fiscal framework and its implications. I appreciate that most members of the public find it hard to understand that there is a direct impact on tax take by limiting the Scottish Government’s borrowing powers to pay for capex projects.

Perhaps a wider area is that people understand that limits on immigration mean that fewer people are paying tax. Are you considering how we make it clear to people that although we agree that there is an issue with the breadth of our tax base—everybody agrees with that—there are standard levers that you might want to pull to increase it? It is probably not mentioned in the report, but can you see that a differentiated immigration policy, fundamentally to increase the tax base, should be part of your discussions with the UK Government?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Medium-term Financial Strategy, Economic and Fiscal Forecasts and Policy Prospectus

Meeting date: 13 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

You will be aware that the committee is looking at public sector review, spending and so on, in the light of rolling back from the resource spending review. I note your three key missions, part of which will involve looking at public bodies and public sector reform. To what extent are you open to thinking ambitiously about that?

Part of my private worry is that agencies may look simply at efficiencies—although I suspect that a lot of them have been doing that for years, due to public sector constraints. We had an interesting comment that perhaps the bolder and more ambitious projects would need to be mandated by the Government. My simple question is, are you going to be able to have a level of ambition in what you look at? I appreciate that such projects have a cost in themselves and are very complex and time consuming. I do not negate that. I want to get a sense of whether it is about more than efficiencies.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Medium-term Financial Strategy, Economic and Fiscal Forecasts and Policy Prospectus

Meeting date: 13 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Good morning, cabinet secretary. Thank you for joining us. One of the things that the committee discussed with the Scottish Fiscal Commission at last week’s meeting was the 14 per cent cut in capital expenditure from 2023-24 to 2028-29. I asked the SFC for clarification on the possible implications of that in relation to limiting our ability to invest. Traditionally, economists say that you should invest when your economy is not doing so well. The clear point that emerged was that capital expenditure has a direct impact on productivity. We know that there is a massive issue with productivity in the UK and, because of those limitations, there is an issue with productivity in Scotland. Have you been able to model that diminution of productivity? It does not seem to be understood that lower productivity leads to a lower tax take and that a lower tax take leads to less money being available to spend for public services. I do not know whether, behind the scenes, you or some of your officials are able to model that, because a 14 per cent cut in real terms will have a direct flow-through to the tax take available to spend on vital public services.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Public Service Reform Programme

Meeting date: 6 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Thanks for that clarification. Given the autonomy of all the different boards, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery was designed to stop NHS boards working as autonomous units. Is it your experience that it does that?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Public Service Reform Programme

Meeting date: 6 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Yes.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Public Service Reform Programme

Meeting date: 6 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

I went through your submission and I note that you mention deficit reduction, efficiency in delivery and distributed working. I have asked you about staff—you corrected me to say that the issue is banding—and about the number of territorial boards and the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. At the start of this inquiry, Police Scotland commented that it would not have been created had that not been mandated. Are they the sorts of things that you would expect to see mandated by central Government? Is your primary focus therefore on the areas that you have set out both in your evidence today and in your submission?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 6 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Good morning. What has been said leads on quite neatly to my questions on capital expenditure. We know that block grant funding from the UK Government is the largest component of the Scottish Government’s capital funding. The commission’s projections suggest that that funding will, in nominal terms, be cut by 14 per cent between 2023-24 and 2028-29. How will that cut affect the productive capacity of the Scottish economy?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 6 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Good. Thank you.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 6 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Okay, thank you.

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