Seòmar agus comataidhean

I would like to go back to Michael Marra’s question about in-year budget savings and the path to balance. The permanent secretary mentioned the 2024-25 budget-setting process as being painful, which is certainly my recollection of it from the position that we were in at that point. What we ended up with was a prudent budget but, inevitably, it still carries pressure. That is inevitable every year, particularly given that public sector pay negotiations are not in sequence with the budget, so there is always a level of uncertainty. The Government will have to go through a similar process this year with the path to balance. The amount varies each year, but there is a path-to-balance process every year.

Part of my frustration with the path-to-balance processes that I was involved in was the length of time that it often took to make decisions that everybody seemed to agree were inevitable—either decisions that something would have to be cut or decisions that something was of such high priority, because of the impact that a cut would have on the public or because it was a political priority or whatever, that it definitely was not going to be cut. However, the length of time that it took created poor value for money.

In 2023-24, the delays to the flexible workforce development fund would be one example of that, but there were lots of others. Is the way we do in-year balancing not quite a poor-value process? There is a whole series of decisions that get dragged out beyond the first, second and even third quarters. Financial decisions are being made in the fourth quarter and money is being released that, inevitably, will not have the same value as if it had been released in the first or second quarter or if it had not been released at all and had just been carried over.

Good morning. James Wylie, I want to pursue with you the issue that Michelle Thomson raised about how to measure success, and what success looks like.

Do you take into account the outcomes in the national performance framework when you are measuring success locally in this regard, or are there not really relevant indicators for your local context, particularly in relation to success around language in an Orcadian context?

Yes, I will bring James and Joanna in in a second, but I have a final question for Donald on that.

One of the challenges for us—across a range of legislation—relates to the balance between what we put in primary legislation to give definitive clarity versus what we want to put in secondary legislation and statutory guidance to allow for flexibility of approach and, in particular, localised approaches. Is there anything that could be included in the bill to provide more clarity or, ultimately, is it the case, as you have just indicated, that that should be left to the more flexible approach that secondary legislation gives us?

One of the challenges that we have had historically, and have at the moment, is the lack of a national framework for measuring success in relation to Gaelic. We have the Government’s Gaelic language plan, and the plans and strategies that the bòrd has produced. However, beyond plans, we do not have clear national agreement on a framework for measuring success. The Government’s Gaelic language plan references the national performance framework not because there are clear indicators in it but to show the interaction between Gaelic and a range of other indicators, such as housing, communities and so on. What has been the barrier? Why are we not sitting here with a clear, nationally agreed framework for how we measure success in relation to Gaelic language?

You make an important point about ownership, and a clear sense of ownership and accountability being a way to improve outcomes.

My next question is about whether the bill makes it clear how we measure that. It is going to give the Government much more accountability, and it will, we hope, put more scrutiny on the Government. However, from our perspective, and from a wider societal perspective, the question is, what are we scrutinising the Government for? How do we collectively as a society judge whether we have been successful, and how does the Government itself do that?

I am looking for your perspective on whether the bill itself makes that clear. Do you look at the bill and think, “It will be clear to me, five or 10 years from now, how we measure success based on what is in here”? Alternatively, could there be something else, either in the bill or external to it, to make it much clearer how we are going to measure success?

Does anyone else have a perspective on what a framework for success looks like?

Thank you. I will put the same question about measuring success to Donald Macleod and Joanna Peteranna. In the current policy landscape, before we take into consideration what the bill would do, are you clear about how you are supposed to be measuring success in your areas and what the metrics are? Is that something that you are able to do? Is the data available for you to confidently assess whether or not success is happening?

I will put the same package of questions to Joanna Peteranna. Is Highlands and Islands Enterprise clear on how it should be measuring success currently? Will the bill change anything in relation to how you measure success?

Thank you—that was really useful.

What impact will the bill have on your ability to measure success and on what success is defined as? Will the bill in itself have any significant impact on the challenges that you have just mentioned?

Are there any provisions in the bill that would change how HIE measures success?