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 2232 contributions
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 19 November 2024
John Mason
Right, okay. That is fine.
The report indicates that service user satisfaction is at 76 per cent. Is that good or bad?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 19 November 2024
John Mason
I want to ask about the 1 per cent for admin costs. I am wondering how realistic that is going to be. I saw that you have been doing work on green freeports relief; I suspect that that relief might mean that your revenues fall. You have also been doing work on the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, and you might not get very much money out of that. Is the 1 per cent realistic? I get your point about digitisation and that kind of thing.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 19 November 2024
John Mason
However, none of the centres in Scotland could cope with a whole class from a special needs school.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 19 November 2024
John Mason
Do you have any suggestions as to where the capital should come from?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 19 November 2024
John Mason
Finally, I will press you again on the point raised by Ross Greer and others about teachers’ attitudes. At the moment, teachers’ involvement in residential outdoor education is voluntary. Although I have not done any studies on this, I imagine that younger or single teachers will be more enthusiastic about it and more able to take part.
The NASUWT told the Education, Children and Young People Committee that it already advises its members not to take part in such trips because that is not part of their contract, but if every kid has to go, or must be given the opportunity to go, do you not think that there will be more pressure on teachers to go on such trips and that they will therefore want to be recompensed for that?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 19 November 2024
John Mason
Is that above last year’s level?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 19 November 2024
John Mason
It is not just an admin thing; it could involve tax revenues.
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 19 November 2024
John Mason
Your compliance figures look good. I presume that part of your job is to upset people who do not want to pay tax, and that your customer satisfaction score could never be 100 per cent, because some people just—
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 19 November 2024
John Mason
I picked up that you have had a few issues with the three-yearly lease reviews. Could you explain why we have the reviews and what the problems were?
Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 19 November 2024
John Mason
Okay—thank you.