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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 12 November 2024
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Displaying 786 contributions

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Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape

Meeting date: 30 April 2024

Liz Smith

How would we go about making that comparison? How do we decide whether the right person to do something is a commissioner, rather than a champion or some other public sector body, whoever it might be, maybe not living up to their reputation? What should the criteria be for us, as a Parliament, to use in deciding on that outcome?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape

Meeting date: 30 April 2024

Liz Smith

Dr Plastow, you gave an interesting response earlier when you said that you had been a bit surprised that you had not been asked for further scrutiny on the seven reports that you have done over your time. Do you think that the Parliament could benefit from greater scrutiny of such reports on a more regular basis, so that we are deciding what has been delivered effectively and what has not?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape

Meeting date: 30 April 2024

Liz Smith

It is much more difficult with the advocacy remits to define what it is that you are trying to do than if you are regulatory or dealing with complaints, where that is easier to measure. Our difficulty—and the Parliament’s difficulty—is that quite a few of the potential new commissioners are to do with advocacy. To try to measure and define what it is that they are going to be looking at is quite difficult. Thank you very much for your comments. They are very helpful.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape

Meeting date: 30 April 2024

Liz Smith

Ms Agnew, you raised an interesting point earlier when you said that you felt that there was a bit of a gap sometimes. Does that gap come about because other bodies that could be looking after a problem are not doing their job sufficiently well? One of the questions that the committee is looking at is the almost doubling of the number of commissioners in future. Quite a lot of the new proposals are about commissioners who have an advocacy purpose. Has that resulted from the fact that there are other areas or other public bodies that are not doing as much as they could to address a problem?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape

Meeting date: 30 April 2024

Liz Smith

Some of the proposals for new commissioners have been made in members’ bills. Individual MSPs who, for one reason or another have been working with constituents or on a particular issue, have decided that there is a gap. Should the Parliament be looking at that, to give more scrutiny to the process of deciding where the need lies, or is it just up to the member to make a proposal?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape

Meeting date: 30 April 2024

Liz Smith

Ms Johnston and Mr Bruce, do you have any reflections on exactly what the problem entails? We have a situation where we are technically almost doubling the number of commissioners. Does that reflect poor scrutiny or problems within the delivery of public services? Why have we got into this situation?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape

Meeting date: 30 April 2024

Liz Smith

That is a very helpful answer. Thank you very much.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape

Meeting date: 30 April 2024

Liz Smith

Good morning. This is a difficult question but, nonetheless, it is an important one. Mr Hamilton, it picks up on your comment that the development of the commissioner landscape has been organic over time. Obviously, some have regulatory functions, some have advocacy functions and some have complaints at their heart, so they are all quite different. Do you have any advice to us about the criteria that should be used to decide whether a commissioner’s office is being efficient in delivering what it has been asked to do?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape

Meeting date: 30 April 2024

Liz Smith

I asked the previous panel this question and I know that it is a difficult one. Are there specific criteria that we can use to discover whether what you are delivering is effective and good value for money? I know that that is difficult, but this finance committee has to look at the outcomes. What do we have to do to measure how successful you are?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scotland’s Commissioner Landscape

Meeting date: 30 April 2024

Liz Smith

The Scottish Biometrics Commissioner, on the previous panel, said that he was slightly surprised that, given that he had submitted seven reports, he was questioned only once. As children’s commissioner, do you feel that you are being scrutinised well enough?