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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

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

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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 10 December 2024
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Displaying 876 contributions

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Finance and Public Administration Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 8 October 2024

Liz Smith

Has that group met three times since the general election?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 8 October 2024

Liz Smith

Thank you—that was a very useful update.

Cabinet secretary, when the tax strategy is published on 4 December, do you intend to present to Parliament what is working well with regard to how the current tax structures relate to the objectives that you have set and what is not working well?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 8 October 2024

Liz Smith

The tax strategy is crucial for all sorts of economic reasons and, perhaps, for social reasons. Therefore, it will make it easier for scrutiny of the budget and beyond if we can see in the tax strategy the Government’s interpretation of the current evidence on the tax structures that are working well in delivering better economic outcomes and where there are problems, some of which have been evidenced by different businesses. That is what we are looking for.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Proposed National Outcomes

Meeting date: 8 October 2024

Liz Smith

Given that local government is technically responsible for the delivery of a lot of the national performance framework outcomes, to what extent is it easy for the Scottish Government to measure which local authorities are doing really well in their own delivery and performance?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Proposed National Outcomes

Meeting date: 8 October 2024

Liz Smith

No, we do not want to go down the dictatorship route.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Proposed National Outcomes

Meeting date: 8 October 2024

Liz Smith

You said earlier that one of the big asks from local authorities and stakeholders was for people to think outwith silos and to be able to read across outcomes, which would be very helpful. Are there examples of local authorities that think outside the box in order to deliver better outcomes under the national performance framework? If there are such local authorities, is the Scottish Government trying to encourage their work by saying, “You’ve done very well on this because you’ve managed to put things together”?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 8 October 2024

Liz Smith

Earlier, Lucy O’Carroll confirmed that the tax strategy will be published along with the budget on 4 December. How many times has the tax strategy group met since the general election?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 8 October 2024

Liz Smith

My final question is about expanding the tax base, which the convener referred to earlier. What are the priorities of the Scottish Government’s current policies on expanding the tax base?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 8 October 2024

Liz Smith

But the tax strategy will set out how we widen the tax base.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Proposed National Outcomes

Meeting date: 8 October 2024

Liz Smith

That is helpful.

My final question is for Kate Forbes. Earlier, we discussed how, perhaps in the past two or three years, some people—although not everybody—have felt that there has not been as much emphasis on the national performance framework as there had been previously and that, therefore, it has been difficult to meet the framework’s demands. Is one possible reason for that difficulty the fact that the framework is, in theory, very ambitious in trying to do some very difficult things, including combining very different objectives and considering the opportunity costs that are involved in all that? Mr Mason mentioned that the Scottish Government has added a few extra dimensions to the framework. Has that made things more difficult?

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