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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 17 May 2025
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Displaying 2601 contributions

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Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

John Mason

Would life expectancy be part of that equation, given that it affects things such as the proportion of the population that is working? It seems to be a UK-wide issue.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

John Mason

We spent quite a lot of time with the Scottish Fiscal Commission earlier this morning looking at inflation from different angles. Professor Breedon talked about the previous, old-fashioned spiral in the 1970s and 1980s when wages and costs chased each other up. The Scottish Fiscal Commission representatives seem to think that that will not happen this time. They are predicting a real earnings decrease of 2.7 per cent. What is your angle on that? Will there have to be a reduction in real earnings because wage increases will not be able to match inflation for a period?

12:00  

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

John Mason

It has been suggested that the headcount in the public sector would reduce to pre-Covid levels—30,000 fewer staff, I believe. Daniel Johnson gave us some figures earlier, and I believe that there has been an increase of 14,000 in the NHS. Can we expect a reduction of 14,000 in the NHS? How does that work out?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

John Mason

Is that because the balance between the number of people who are self-employed and those who are employed can change a lot from year to year?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Skills Development Scotland

Meeting date: 31 May 2022

John Mason

I was going to ask about that in a supplementary question. You have people in schools; I hope that you can assure me that they are working on this. When I speak to young people when I visit schools, I get the impression that many girls have just not thought about engineering. That is because of peer pressure or their families feeling that they should not go into those jobs. If you can show us figures that show that we are making progress, that will be encouraging. I get a bit despondent at times.

12:00  

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Skills Development Scotland

Meeting date: 31 May 2022

John Mason

I absolutely agree with that.

The other thing that I will touch on is the other end of people’s lives—early retirement. It can be argued that people retiring early—especially highly skilled people—is having a negative effect on the productivity of the country as a whole. I have highly skilled friends who are the same age as me who have already retired. Maybe I should be considering it, as well. Is that a bad thing? It provides an opportunity for a younger person to come into a highly skilled job. In terms of the national performance framework, we have other aims in society—for the environment, for example. People who retire early might voluntarily get involved in some of those things. How do we get the balance right?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Skills Development Scotland

Meeting date: 31 May 2022

John Mason

Thanks, convener. I think that I will carry on working for a bit longer.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action

Meeting date: 31 May 2022

John Mason

One of the comparisons that have been made is with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. I believe that the Welsh have a commissioner who can challenge the Government from outside. We have commissioners on many things already and I presume that we will have many more in future. What do you think about the idea of having somebody outside Government whose specific job is to challenge all of us on how we tie in with the national performance framework?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

National Performance Framework: Ambitions into Action

Meeting date: 31 May 2022

John Mason

Oxfam said that there is not really an outcome that relates to care, and it suggested that we might add such an outcome or be a bit more specific about that. Do you have thoughts on that?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Skills Development Scotland

Meeting date: 31 May 2022

John Mason

I take your point, Mr Brodie, that there is a difference between skills and education. However, are we sending too many people to university?