Skip to main content

Language: English / Gàidhlig

Loading…

Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

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

Criathragan Hide all filters

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 2 April 2025
Select which types of business to include


Select level of detail in results

Displaying 1492 contributions

|

Public Audit Committee

“Investing in Scotland’s infrastructure”

Meeting date: 7 March 2024

Jamie Greene

So that £300 million could, in theory, be converted to the capital budget, which I presume would go some way to filling the £1.3 billion shortfall that you have projected—I think that that is the figure that you gave.

Public Audit Committee

“Investing in Scotland’s infrastructure”

Meeting date: 7 March 2024

Jamie Greene

Absolutely—that is a decision for ministers. What I am getting at is that the figures that you gave were forecasted real-terms cuts, whereas that is potential real cash as opposed to deflationary-valued money. In other words, the money could go some way towards dealing with any potential deficit, should it be spent in that way. Further, it is new money—it did not exist yesterday morning, for example—so I presume that you had not already forecasted it in your budgets.

Public Audit Committee

“Investing in Scotland’s infrastructure”

Meeting date: 7 March 2024

Jamie Greene

Ms Stafford, where are you getting the 8.7 per cent figure from? What is it made up of? The briefing that we have from the Auditor General forecasts that it will be 7 per cent, and we have heard other individuals talk about 10 per cent. You have today mentioned 8.7 per cent, which is a new figure. What levels of future inflation are you basing that on, based on the latest revised inflationary rates?

Public Audit Committee

“Investing in Scotland’s infrastructure”

Meeting date: 7 March 2024

Jamie Greene

In other words, it is a moving feast. If and when inflation reduces, that number reduces, and it has already reduced substantially in the past few days. Is there a possibility that the 8.7 per cent figure could become 5 or 4 or 3 per cent?

Public Audit Committee

“Investing in Scotland’s infrastructure”

Meeting date: 7 March 2024

Jamie Greene

We do, and it is certainly moving in the right direction, which is positive. However, it perhaps raises a wider question. I presume that, when a lot of projects were budgeted for in the first place, we were in a different world, where inflation was extremely low and interest rates were almost non-existent, at towards 0 per cent. When the Scottish Government’s various directorates were forecasting the costs of large infrastructure projects, to what extent were they budgeting for a potential rise in interest rates? In other words, was the total cost of a project based on the interest rates that existed at the time? Might it have been more prudent to factor in any potential rise in interest rates, knowing that there was a possibility that they could increase? Where do we sit against that? How realistic were those forecasts?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of NHS Forth Valley”

Meeting date: 29 February 2024

Jamie Greene

What are the key take aways, so that a member of the public who is watching this meeting can have confidence in what is happening?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of NHS Forth Valley”

Meeting date: 29 February 2024

Jamie Greene

It would be great to have any additional updates that you can provide.

It is interesting that much has been mentioned about workforce issues, and we have talked in great detail about the importance of executive leadership. The other key finding from the external review of corporate governance is about the

“root cause of many of the significant challenges”

that you face as a health board. The review states that one root cause is

“the failure to agree an appropriate business model for the delivery of integrated health and social care services”.

We have not spent a lot of time on that aspect this morning. Have things improved?

Public Audit Committee

“Decarbonising heat in homes”

Meeting date: 29 February 2024

Jamie Greene

Appendix 2 of the report is on the delivery schemes. It seems to be a complicated and complex subsidy environment. There are a number of schemes. We have warmer homes Scotland, which is delivered by Warmworks. We have area-based schemes, which are delivered by local councils. We have Home Energy Scotland grants, which are delivered by the Energy Savings Trust, and so on. The number of households that are getting proper conversion of heating systems out of that is in the tens of thousands, as opposed to the hundreds of thousands or millions.

It seems to be quite a complex landscape, as other members have mentioned. Could it be simplified? The risk is that if you leave things to the market alone and people’s only exposure to accessing improvements is via the private sector advertising those schemes with a view to making profit in their own way, it becomes quite a dangerous environment for the consumer.

Public Audit Committee

“Decarbonising heat in homes”

Meeting date: 29 February 2024

Jamie Greene

That is based on the assumption that we will have the people to do the work. As you said, there is a huge number of people out there who can install new gas boilers, but there will need to be a marked shift to installing new technologies and maintaining them on an on-going basis.

There has been a fair amount of pushback from the industry about what is on offer to incentivise it to retrain and reskill staff if the market does not exist. It is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, of course. Do you think that the Government is acutely aware of that? Do you think that the plans that it has produced to ensure that we have the people to carry out the transition are robust?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2022/23 audit of NHS Forth Valley”

Meeting date: 29 February 2024

Jamie Greene

That is fine. My parting question is for Ms McCusker. It is your last day in the job as chair. What would your advice be to the incoming chair?