Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you. We now move to the next agenda item, which the committee has agreed to take in private.

That is very helpful. The only thought that I have about pushing that forward is that monitoring such things and providing guidance on them would be a very heavy draw on the committee’s resources.

I echo your thanks to Gordon MacDonald on this, but is there not a process by which we could have the purpose of a CPG plus the ability, which a lot of CPGs require, for it to call out from the highest mountain the benefits of that group?

Thank you. My apologies—Edward Mountain wants to speak.

Then, in some circumstances, that will become a case in its own right as a one-off and there will be a response made by whomever the allegation is made against. However, there are occasions when there are a number of different complaints, perhaps from a number of different sources, and, for the purposes of reaching an equitable and legal conclusion, it makes sense to deal with them together, and that then becomes a case. When there are large numbers of complaints and smaller numbers of cases, it is not that things have vanished; it is that they have been brought together for the purposes of justice. Is that right?

Okay. I will move on, which will probably help to facilitate discussion of what you intend to do. There has been an increase in the number of admissible complaints that you receive. Are you in a position to express a view as to why that number is going up? What would you like the committee to know, from your point of view, about why it is going up?

Absolutely. I understand that Bob Doris has a supplementary comment.

We can see you talking, but we cannot hear you. I will pass over to Paul McLennan to ask his questions, and the broadcasting team will get back to us about your connection. I am sorry about that.

You are up sooner than we thought, Paul. Over to you.

You mentioned your annual reports, but what would be the advantages of placing annual planning and reporting requirements on the Scottish Government? Would that not be too onerous?

As part of spreading the understanding of board roles across Scotland’s civic society and beyond, an annual publication will always give the advantage of press interest in these events. If people understood more of what the roles on boards were, perhaps we would see a wider pool of people putting themselves forward. Is that fair?

Do you feel that the criticism of being overprescriptive is unfair because, within its own confines, the code allows for innovative thinking? As you say, the approach, which is based on the very foundations of the code, is about getting the right person in the right place, and the code would allow that to happen.