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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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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 16 March 2025
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Displaying 2045 contributions

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COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24

Meeting date: 22 September 2022

Jim Fairlie

That comes back to my first point, which was about how the Government and local authorities set their priorities when all the competing things such as regulators’ demands come in.

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24

Meeting date: 22 September 2022

Jim Fairlie

I will ask you one more question before I move on to the other witnesses. When Murdo Fraser asked about the increase in demand for services, you said that the increase is across all sectors. Why is that increase happening? Is it because people’s life patterns are changing? What is driving the increase in demand for your services?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24

Meeting date: 22 September 2022

Jim Fairlie

I welcome the witnesses to the meeting.

I have come into politics very late, and I find some of the budget talks and discussions quite confusing. If I was running my own business, I would consider my priorities and say, “Right, we need to spend some money there, because that is where we have a problem right now.” Politically, I can see why that is incredibly difficult for the Government, because everybody is saying, “That’s my priority now.” I struggle to get my head around it.

I assume that all the strategies that Alex Rowley talked about are produced because we need transparency, and the Government needs to be seen to be telling people how things will work. However, given what is, in effect, a £1.7 billion cut to the Scottish budget, how can we look to the future and try to make things much better, which will take massive investment, but continue to spend the amount of money that we need to spend on all the things that are priorities now? How do we square that?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24

Meeting date: 22 September 2022

Jim Fairlie

That leads me on to my next question. During Covid, there was great collaboration and breaking down of red tape, bureaucracy and everything else. Things got done, which was great—brilliant. From local authorities’ point of view, is that approach continuing? Does the third sector believe that it is continuing in the way that local authorities think that it is?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24

Meeting date: 8 September 2022

Jim Fairlie

You are saying that we need to find out what we need to do before we can budget for that.

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24

Meeting date: 8 September 2022

Jim Fairlie

I will stop you there, as that brings me back to something that Richard Robinson talked about earlier. The point about Barnett consequentials interests me. If Scotland has a specific healthcare issue, whatever it is—for instance, it could be a virus that is present in Scotland but not in the rest of the UK—how does the Scottish Government fund the response?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24

Meeting date: 8 September 2022

Jim Fairlie

Mary, do you want to add anything?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24

Meeting date: 8 September 2022

Jim Fairlie

So it would be from Scottish resource.

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24

Meeting date: 8 September 2022

Jim Fairlie

Okay—that answers that question. That led on well—you guys are good.

I have a couple of other wee bits and pieces to raise—please bear with me. Alex Rowley asked a question about the budget for getting people into the service. Is it a financial factor that is causing the problem? Is it to do with having enough people in place or is the issue that people are not available to do the job, that they do not want to do it or that they have moved away from it? There has been a huge churn in people’s lives. People have decided that they do not want a life working in hospitality any more, for example. Is the same thing happening in the NHS? Is one of the resourcing problems that you have to do with staff, rather than it being a financial problem?

That question is for both of you—please crack on.

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2023-24

Meeting date: 8 September 2022

Jim Fairlie

Okay.