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 406 contributions
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Rhoda Grant
NATS currently operates the radar service for Sumburgh from Aberdeen. Is that right? No one is based in Sumburgh; there are no job implications for Shetland.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Rhoda Grant
I have a comment about community involvement. I have spoken to Prospect members and the like. They seem to be happier with their current involvement, but we have heard from Peter Henderson that he is concerned about community involvement. He is representing the community—albeit that he is doing so as a previous employee of HIAL. We need to get everybody on side. The issue is so important that we must ensure that, whatever comes from the discussions, there is buy-in from everyone, and that they all have confidence in the system that will be put in place.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 4 May 2022
Rhoda Grant
Thank you, convener. I have a question for clarification. Prospect has worked well on the matter and I am pleased that we are where we are and are making progress. We talked about replicating the Sumburgh service. Peter Henderson, the petitioner, had some concerns about what might happen in Sumburgh with radar being centralised to Inverness. Does that have staffing implications and do you see issues with it?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Rhoda Grant
Thank you—that is helpful.
I have a couple of questions about procurement. It seems that the whole procurement process was wrong. We have recently heard in the news that the Scottish Government is procuring ferries from Turkey, as is Norway. However, Norway is paying only half the price for comparable ferries. Is there something very wrong with the Scottish Government’s procurement process that leads to it paying huge amounts of money for ferries and, in a way, perhaps not procuring them? Obviously, the ferries that we are talking about now have not been delivered and we have yet to see whether the others will be delivered.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Rhoda Grant
Will you look into that in the future, given that it is about public spending and the cost to the public purse?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Rhoda Grant
No. Thank you for letting me attend the meeting, convener.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Rhoda Grant
Obviously, there is no paper trail but, when you were doing your investigation, Auditor General, did you ask the accountable officer who, at ministerial level, told them to proceed?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Rhoda Grant
You have not directly asked the accountable officer whether they recall who made that decision.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 28 April 2022
Rhoda Grant
Thank you. I will try and be as quick as I can.
At the start of the process, the NHS Scotland resource allocation committee—NRAC—settlement was not paid in full to NHS Highland. Is that the case now? In relation to the challenges coming down the road, obviously, there is Covid recovery, but there is also the taking on of maternity services on behalf of Grampian for Moray until Dr Gray’s hospital is restored. You also talked about the elective centre. How will you cope with those challenges, and are you receiving the funding that you require in order to deliver for the people of the Highlands?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 21 April 2022
Rhoda Grant
That, and the level at which such decisions are taken. At what level would you expect a decision of such magnitude to be taken?