Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, cabinet secretary. As a member who has been in Parliament for a number of years and has served in local government but no longer does, I am delighted to be on the local government committee once again, and I look forward to the session ahead.

I want to pick up on an interesting point about the recovery process that you made in your opening remarks. You undoubtedly hope that our local government colleagues will drive us through much of that process. What did you mean when you said that we cannot go back to the status quo, or that we should not think that we are operating from the status quo? Could you expand on that point? How do you see local government leading the line in the recovery, particularly for town centres?

On that point, members have talked about flexibility versus ring fencing. Has there been a discussion of those themes or topics within the levelling up agenda?

We expect local government to be the recipient of the UK Government’s levelling up fund as part of the recovery process, but we do not understand what role the Scottish Government has had, or will have, in that, or indeed what the committee’s role might be in scrutinising that process. How does the Scottish Government view that process? What participation will we have in it?

Good morning, Elma. What are your thoughts on the work that you planned to do in “Following the pandemic pound: our strategy”? What will the scope of that work be? In particular, will you look at the systems and processes that we have used to distribute support to businesses, communities, individuals and so on? I am sure that, during the pandemic, committee members around the table have heard stories about how difficult it has been for a number of organisations and businesses to access support. Was the system flexible enough? Did we get it right? Did everyone who needed help get help?

I have no additional interests other than those in my entry in the register of members’ interests, which are that I am a former councillor of East Ayrshire Council, I am a former employee of Learning and Teaching Scotland and I own a small number of shares in Kilmarnock Football Club.

Craig Hoy talked about following the public pound agenda. We know that, because of the impact of European Union withdrawal, we are not quite clear where the scrutiny gaze will fall. I hope that Audit Scotland will give us a little advice on that, too.

Previously, we had some ability to see what was happening in monitoring spend in Scotland from new European Union structural funds, for example, but I am not quite clear about whether we will have the same ability to look at things such as the United Kingdom Government’s levelling-up funds and the various other funds that may replace the structural funds. Perhaps we need to be a little clearer about what our role there is—if we have a scrutiny role at all. Substantial amounts of money will be spent, albeit by a different jurisdiction, and I hope that we will have the ability to shine a light on some of that, too.

It is a pleasure to be back on the committee, particularly with my friend and colleague Colin Beattie. Both of us have given the committee a number of years’ service, and I really enjoy the work that we do.

I have read through the legacy paper. From one session to the next, audit reports always seem to contain a number of recurring themes. One issue is following up on the work that we have done in the committee to try to engender a spirit of continuous improvement in the public sector.

Audit Scotland and the committee have done a lot of very good work, but I have sometimes felt that we have not seen the outcome of that work in performance improvement and how various public bodies in Scotland embrace audit to get that improvement. I have sometimes felt that public bodies have thought that we were there to punish them—in fact, that we were an instrument of torture. We are not. We are here to provide opportunities for continuous improvement and to help public bodies, and a lot of public bodies need to begin to embrace that.

At some stage in the work that we do, I would like to be able to see some evidence of continuing improvement from the bodies that we shine our gaze on. That would be a good development of the work that the committee can do in this session. I very much hope to see a little more of that.

Agenda item 2 is to choose our convener. The procedure is explained in paper 2, which members should have.

The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish Green Party are eligible for nomination as convener of the committee. I understand that Ariane Burgess is that party’s nominee.

Ariane Burgess was chosen as convener.

I congratulate Ariane on becoming the new convener of our committee, and I hand over the chair.

Good morning and welcome to the first meeting in session 6 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. As the most senior member of the committee, I have the pleasure of convening the meeting for the first two items of business.

I welcome all members and I look forward to working with everyone on the committee. I remind everyone to switch their mobile phones to silent mode. I understand that no apologies have been received for the meeting.

Agenda item 1 is for each of us to declare any interests that are relevant to the work of the committee. Background information has been provided for members in paper 1. I do not have any interests to declare other than those that are already in my entry in the register of members’ interests. I invite members to declare their interests, in turn.