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The regulations would give authority to apply them. Technically, I guess that if it was down to local authorities to fund uplifts, authorities could decide not to do so.

Well, what councils are saying is that they want us to pay for it; they are saying that they cannot afford it and they want us to pay for it.

It would not be backdated to 2024: it would start from 1 April 2025. I am very clear about that. I think that this will be difficult enough to get agreement on, and its presentation to the public is quite an ask. I do not think that the public in particular have politicians’ salaries at the top of their list of priorities. However, I will from the outset not agree to the idea of backdating for two years from 1 April 2025. That is not happening. We will discuss whether we can find agreement to implement the change from 1 April 2025.

I do not agree at all, because the Verity house agreement is about partnership and respect for each sphere of government, which is something that is very important for COSLA, and about where responsibility lies for respective roles and functions. For example, it is not about central Government funding all local government costs. We do not fund all teachers’ pay or all local government pay, per se. We make a contribution but we do not fund it all. That is the responsibility of local authorities.

It is about where the balance lies, and on something as contentious—if I can use that word—as this, the responsibility has to lie on a cross-local-government and cross-party basis, because otherwise I just do not think that this will fly. The spirit of the Verity house agreement is about partnership and trying to find solutions. I have said that I am willing to have the discussion around the budget to see whether a solution can be found, but that will require compromise and give. I am certainly willing to have those discussions.

I think that the next steps are for some genuine negotiation around the budget. For me, a step that I will require is some reassurance about cross-party support for this move. I think that that needs to set the tone for the local government settlement. If this is seen as a priority, it needs to be everybody’s priority. COSLA and local government are made up of all parties represented in Parliament as well as independents. I think that, despite the heat, which there will be, everybody has to step forward to say “We are all agreed that this is a priority, and we want to make sure that, in our discussions with Scottish Government as part of the local government settlement, it is seen as a clear priority by everybody.” I do not think that it is unreasonable for me to ask for that.

As I said earlier, I do not think that there would have been any perfect time for this report. If it had been published earlier, it would have been the opening gambit for some of those negotiations. It would have been right at the start of them. You could argue that it would have framed and set the floor for those discussions with local government workforces. I do not think that there would have been any ideal timing in that respect.

Looking at the negotiations in detail, I note that it is very welcome that two of the three unions have now accepted the offers that have been made. There was a range of other things that the local government unions were looking for in terms of pay progression for the lowest paid and so on. I am not sure that the SLARC recommendations were centre stage in all that. There was a whole load of other pay issues that were being negotiated. The fact that two out of three unions have now accepted shows that enough progress was made, particularly on pay progression for the lower paid, to satisfy two out of the three unions.

Yes. A pertinent phrase is “You can’t be what you can’t see.” We need to see local government represent and look like Scotland, and in some parts of the country it does not. We fully understand all the reasons for that, and it is not unique to local government. We still have work to do in the Parliament and there is work to be done at Westminster. For example, the level of women’s representation is much lower than in other spheres of government. That is an issue, without a doubt, and I think that there is an opportunity to do something about it.

It is important to emphasise that this is not just about remuneration. It is about so many other things that go through someone’s head when they are deciding whether this is for them. Partly it will be about work-life balance, other commitments, caring responsibilities and so on. However, some of it is about the toxicity, to be frank, of our political discourse, social media and the media’s portrayal of politicians. We all know what that can be like—for women, in particular—and it puts folk off. I have spent a lot of time trying to persuade women I know to stand in local government and in other spheres, and it is hard. It does not take long to find abuse directed at female politicians—female councillors included—and that abuse has a particular flavour. There is something about our body politic more generally that we need to try to sort out. It is not easy and I do not have a list of answers here. It is hard and it puts women off—it puts other people off too, but particularly women.

Yes, and I look forward to seeing what it recommends.

My pleasure.

Thanks very much, convener. I do not want to take up too much time before we move to questions, but I do want to say a few words to begin with.

First, I thank Angela Leitch, the convener of SLARC, and all the members of that committee for the time that they have given to and their work on the issue of councillor remuneration and the report that they have produced. I am also grateful to COSLA officers who supported the committee in its work.

I also put on record my thanks to all serving and former councillors for their work. Councillors are key to our democratic system and play a valuable part in local decision making. We all know that it is not an easy role, and I am grateful to those who have chosen to stand in the past or are considering standing in the future.

SLARC was reconvened by the Scottish Government at COSLA’s request to undertake an independent review of remuneration and local authority bandings, with a key focus on whether levels of remuneration reflected the responsibilities of modern-day councillors and were not barriers to elected office. The Scottish Government’s response to SLARC’s recommendation report was published on 5 July. In that, I indicated that I was happy to accept the majority of the pay and structural change recommendations and would make regulations early in 2025 to implement them.

A key factor with regard to the timing for implementing the recommendations was that the initial report was not published until February 2024, which, of course, was after the Scottish Government and individual local authorities had agreed and set their budgets. Therefore, it was not possible to consider the cost implications and take them into account when making spending decisions this financial year.

Convener, I need to be up front about costs. The Scottish Government does not and has never provided funding specifically to meet the costs of councillor salaries; that has always been a matter for local authorities. Councillor salaries and associated expenses are paid from each authority’s annual allocation, as agreed under the local government settlement. However, I have indicated to the COSLA presidential team that I am happy to consider the cost of implementing the recommendations as part of the discussions on next year’s budget and settlement. I am sure we will talk more about that during the session.

As for the shared recommendations for the Scottish Government and COSLA—for example, on promoting the role of councillors in the severance resettlement payment—I have accepted most of them, either in part or in principle. I am happy for my officials to work with COSLA to give them further consideration.

As I have said, councillors play a key role in Scotland’s democratic system. Pay is only one barrier to individuals standing for election, and we need to look beyond it to review and remove other barriers to office. The COSLA barriers to elected office special interest group will, I think, be critical in this area, and I know that it is moving at pace on the matter. After all, councils, too, have a role to play by, for example, looking at the timing of meetings and reviewing any administrative barriers that might, albeit unintentionally, impact on participation. I look forward to seeing the outputs from that group and have asked my officials to support that work, where it is appropriate for them to do so.

I will end there, convener, but I will briefly repeat my thanks to SLARC for its work and to past and serving councillors for their contributions.