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Finance and Constitution Committee Finance and Constitution Committee Wednesday 7 December 2016 Session 5 © Parliamentary copyright. Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Information on the Scottish Parliament’s copyright policy can be found on the website - www.parliament.scot or by contacting Public Information on 0131 348 5000 Wednesday 7 December 2016 CONTENTS Col. DECISION ON TAKING BUSINESS IN PRIVATE ....................................................................................................... 1 DRAFT BUDGET SCRUTINY 2017-18 ................................................................................................................... 2 SCOTTISH GROWTH FORECASTS ...................................................................................................................... 18 FINANCE AND CONSTITUTION COMMITTEE 15th Meeting 2016, Session 5 CONVENER *Bruce Crawford (Stirling) (SNP) DEPUTY CONVENER *Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con) COMMITTEE MEMBERS *Neil Bibby (West Scotland) (Lab) *Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (SNP) *Ash Denham (Edinburgh Eastern) (SNP) *Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) *Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green) *James Kelly (Glasgow) (Lab) *Dean Lockhart (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) *Ivan McKee (Glasgow Provan) (SNP) *Maree Todd (Highlands and Islands) (SNP) *attended THE FOLLOWING ALSO PARTICIPATED: Dougie Adams (EY ITEM Club) Jackson Carlaw MSP (Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body) Derek Croll (Scottish Parliament) Mark Gregory (EY ITEM Club) Sir Paul Grice (Scottish Parliament) Duncan Whitehead (EY ITEM Club) CLERK TO THE COMMITTEE James Johnston LOCATION The David Livingstone Room (CR6) 1 7 DECEMBER 2016 2 Scottish Parliament Draft Budget Scrutiny 2017-18 Finance and Constitution 09:31 Committee The Convener: Agenda item 2 is an evidence- taking session on the Scottish Parliamentary Wednesday 7 December 2016 Corporate Body’s proposed 2017-18 budget. I welcome to the meeting Jackson Carlaw MSP, [The Convener opened the meeting at 09:30] who is a member of the corporate body; Sir Paul Grice, chief executive of the Parliament; and Decision on Taking Business in Derek Croll, group head of finance and security. Members will have received copies of a letter from Private the Presiding Officer providing details of the corporate body’s budget bid, and I invite Jackson The Convener (Bruce Crawford): Good Carlaw to make a short opening statement. morning. I welcome colleagues and visitors to the 15th meeting in 2016 of the Finance and Jackson Carlaw MSP (Scottish Parliamentary Constitution Committee. As usual, I ask members Corporate Body): Good morning, colleagues. I to ensure that their mobile phones are switched off come before you as a corporate body ingénu, or at least switched to a mode that will not having just assumed responsibility following the interfere with proceedings. resignation of my colleague Alex Johnstone in circumstances that you will all understand. Agenda item 1 is a decision on whether to take Somewhat to my surprise, I discovered that I was items 4 and 5 in private. Are members agreed? going to have the finance portfolio and would have Members indicated agreement. to appear before the committee about 10 days later to present the corporate body’s budget. The Convener: It is delightful to see you. Jackson Carlaw: Thank you for the opportunity to present details of the budget for 2017-18, which is the budget for the second year of the new session of Parliament. You will have seen the Presiding Officer’s letter setting out our budget submission for 2017-18, in which he makes reference to the successful programme of savings that was delivered by the SPCB over the previous parliamentary session. That programme achieved 10 per cent real-terms reductions in budgets and staff numbers from the 2010-11 baseline to 2015- 16, while consistently delivering against our strategic plan and supporting demanding programmes of parliamentary business. The new session brings new challenges, and the corporate body has a duty to ensure that the Parliament is properly resourced to meet its requirements. As a member and colleague since 2007, I certainly detect a renewed energy in the Parliament in this new session. That is partly due to the infectious enthusiasm of so many new MSPs. We had a record 51 new—or nearly new, as we used to say in the motor trade—members elected in May, some of whom are sitting opposite me this morning. Moreover, I sense that, as we enter session 5, the Parliament has now matured as an institution and continues to evolve, particularly as it assumes substantial new powers on taxation and welfare. We are already seeing evidence of that renewed energy in the volume of business, with significantly increased numbers of questions, motions and 3 7 DECEMBER 2016 4 proposals for members’ bills, and I can see no ombudsman and the Equalities and Human Rights reason at this stage to suggest that those Committee will take evidence from the Scottish increased levels will not be sustained throughout Human Rights Commission. the session. Secondly, the SPCB is proposing to set aside a As for the budget itself, the headline figures for £1 million contingency, regarded as prudent, for total expenditure excluding non-cash items show emergencies, anticipated potential costs that are an increase of £0.8 million from the 2016-17 not yet certain and emerging cost pressures. We budget and are £1.4 million higher than the consider that contingency to be tight in the current indicative forecast provided to the previous climate of uncertainty, and it is less of a Finance Committee in December last year. The contingency than has been applied previously. We increase from the previous indicative forecast is have set that level to maintain the overall budget due to two specific items that fall outside the submission within the previous indicative forecast SPCB’s control: new statutory functions for the on a like-for-like basis. ombudsman; and project costs and system and As set out in our submission, the SPCB is marketing costs for the new lobbying register. submitting its budget to the Finance and Excluding those, the SPCB’s budget for 2017-18 is Constitution Committee in advance of the in line with its previous submission. publication of the draft Scottish budget on 15 With regard to pay, our budget submission is December. It is an unusual situation, but we will based on the continuation of our previous prudent consider what that tells us about the pressures on pay restraint. The financial year 2017-18 is the future years’ budgets and respond accordingly. In second year of a two-year agreement negotiated advance of the Scottish budget, however, we have with the trade unions on pay for SPCB staff, and provided an indicative forecast for 2017-18, based the budget calculations incorporate the agreed on the latest Office for Budget Responsibility uplift to pay scales in that pay deal. Schedule 3 in estimate of the consumer price index. our budget submission includes an analysis of Finally, I put on record the corporate body’s additional posts proposed in the parliamentary appreciation of the work done by the chief service and we would be happy to expand on that executive and his team in preparing the SPCB’s in our evidence today. As reported to the Finance 2017-18 budget submission. As a new member, I Committee in previous years, the Scottish have been struck by the professionalism of the Parliament salary scheme now directly links MSP senior staff that serve us in the Parliament. salaries to public sector pay rises in Scotland, using the annual survey of hours and earnings That concludes my opening remarks. I hope that published by the Office for National Statistics. I have managed to convey a sense of the Using that index, I can confirm that an increase of responsible approach that we have taken to 1.8 per cent will be applied in April 2017. setting the Parliament’s budget. My colleagues and I are more than happy to answer any As we have provided analysis of other costs in questions that the committee may have. various schedules that form part of our budget submission, I do not propose to repeat that The Convener: Thank you, Mr Carlaw, for information in my opening remarks. However, I those opening remarks. As for the energy of new draw the committee’s attention to two areas. First, and nearly new members, I hope that you will as members are aware, the SPCB is charged with accept that some of us veterans still have some the oversight of commissioners and the Scottish fuel left in the tank. Public Services Ombudsman, and it is an area of Jackson Carlaw: I am willing to be persuaded. our budget that the committee has always taken a keen interest in. The proposed 2017-18 budget for The Convener: The letter from the Presiding office-holders amounts to £9.6 million, Officer states: representing a substantial increase of £1.3 “Our budget bid for 2017-18 reflects the emerging million—or 15 per cent—on the approved 2016-17 demands arising as a result of the complex new powers” budget. It is important to recognise, though, that that is largely because new statutory functions that the Scottish Parliament will have in the future. have been transferred to the ombudsman in Can you say more about how you have dealt with respect of the social welfare fund and social work that issue in setting your budget, particularly in the complaints. light of some of the work that has been done by John McCormick in the review set by the Presiding We welcome the involvement of other Officer? Does some of your contingency money committees in scrutinising aspects of the various relate to issues that might emerge from that office-holders that are not within our remit. For review? example, next month the Local Government and Communities Committee and the Health and Sport Jackson Carlaw: No, I do not think that the Committee will take evidence from the contingency makes provision for completely 5 7 DECEMBER 2016 6 unforeseen issues that might arise from the responsibilities that it has been determined the Presiding Officer’s review, nor does it make any ombudsman will carry, but you make an provision for anything arising from the Brexit interesting wider point.
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