Seòmar agus comataidhean

I was previously on the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, which you presented to, and that point came across quite clearly. Thank you for that.

Good morning. Two key things came out in the section 22 report that was issued. One was that

“key relationships with other public bodies have broken down”,

which you have touched on. The other key thing was that the Auditor General concluded that the ethical standards commissioner’s office was “neither open nor transparent”. Can you talk a bit more about those two issues and go into a bit more detail?

I want to talk about the directions that were issued to the ethical standards commissioner during 2021, to get a bit of context about that and about what the impact has been since then. We understand that those directions are to be in place for a further two years. Can you explain why there continues to be a need for those directions and whether you envisage ending the arrangements at the end of that period?

Can you clarify what dates will those be? You said two years and three months. What exact dates are those?

That is helpful. I have no further questions at this stage, unless Ian Bruce wants to come in on that point.

I appreciate that. Thank you.

That is really useful.

Good morning, witnesses. It does not seem that long ago since you were last in front of us, and there are still the same issues. You touched on a couple of issues right at the start, one of which was the cost of uprating, which is included in the block grant adjustment. To what extent does inflation create a risk to the Scottish budget?

The second issue is the current level of uncertainty in inflation forecasts. You talked about the inflation rate being 11 per cent and it impacting people on lower incomes. Will you say a bit more about food inflation, in particular? Food inflation is predicted to be high, and it is already high. I ask Professor Roy to answer first.

Anecdotally, we have seen various forecasts and estimates that say that food inflation is probably nearer 15 per cent than 11 per cent and that the rate for other essentials is probably nearer 20 per cent than 11 per cent. We need to dive a little bit deeper into the impact on lower-paid people, in particular, because, proportionally, they have to spend more on food than anybody else. We must be aware of that when considering the issue.

Is the Fiscal Commission considering doing something more specific on that in the future? You said that, proportionately, it is a higher part of their income. Could the commission do a deeper dive into that and, for example, say that there is a more specific impact for people in a lower income decile? Again, that really impacts on the work of the committee. I know that we are talking anecdotally, but could the commission do a more specific piece of work on that?