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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 532 contributions

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Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 1 June 2023

Jeremy Balfour

Does the cabinet secretary recognise that the current delays to benefit processing, especially of adult disability payment, are unacceptable? What has been done to ensure that decision times are met? The current standard does not meet the mantra of dignity, fairness and respect.

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 18 May 2023

Jeremy Balfour

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to roll out universal free school meals. (S6O-02247)

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 18 May 2023

Jeremy Balfour

Three weeks ago, the cabinet secretary said that the Scottish National Party was committed to piloting free school meals in secondary schools. However, the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister have suggested that a targeted approach would be better. Can the cabinet secretary clear up that confusion and confirm whether the SNP Government is committed to piloting universal free school meals in secondary schools? If so, when will that start?

Meeting of the Parliament

Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Jeremy Balfour

I welcome the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill and confirm that those of us on this side of the chamber will vote for it at decision time today. As the cabinet secretary mentioned, it is a fairly non-controversial bill, which is probably just as well because, since stage 1, we have had a new cabinet secretary, a new convener and a new deputy convener and we have lost five members of the committee. [Laughter.] If it had been controversial, heaven knows what would have happened. However, it is a welcome bill, and I hope that it will bring some clarity with regard to how charity law is developing.

Like others, I thank those who gave evidence to the committee at stage 1, including the third sector bodies and other bodies with an interest in the matter. Like the cabinet secretary, we all acknowledge, I am sure, the importance of the third sector and of charities in Scotland. In our local communities, many of us see charities providing care and help to the most vulnerable, and many of us are aware of the larger charities that work across Scotland.

As someone who worked in the third sector briefly and as someone who has been a trustee of a number of charities, I know how difficult it sometimes is to recruit people into such positions to ensure that there is good governance. I hope that the bill—or the act, in due course—will help in that regard.

To critique the bill slightly, I suppose that what is most disappointing is not what is in it, but what is not in it. That came through clearly in the evidence that we heard, particularly from the third sector. There was an opportunity to have a wide-ranging review of charity law rather than the technical bill that we have before us today, but that has not happened. There is disappointment in that regard.

I understand that the minister has said again today that there will be further consultation once the bill has become an act, but I ask her to put on the record in her closing remarks that there will be no further bill on the matter in the current session of Parliament and that any change in charity law will happen in the next session.

Meeting of the Parliament

Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Jeremy Balfour

That is an interesting concept. I would quite like it to be tested, to see if it is right, but it may well be something that we can look at.

There was a slight confusion—and perhaps it was my ignorance rather than anyone else’s—about what happens if a charity has an interim trustee appointed to it that it does not want. My reading of the bill is that there is no right of appeal for that, and that the only way forward would be for those trustees who may not have been functioning but who are still around to take the matter to judicial review. That seems to be very expensive and would take up a lot of resources and time. I wonder whether the Government would write to the committee to clarify why there is no right of appeal if the charity does not like the interim trustees who have been appointed. Such appointments are likely to happen fairly rarely, but, when they do, that will probably be because there has been some kind of conflict or because something has gone wrong.

Finally, and very briefly, I will pick up on a point that was made by my colleague Miles Briggs about lifetime gifts and legacies, which are covered by section 12 of the bill. According to what the Law Society of Scotland said about lifetime gifts in its submission, if I put a lifetime gift to a charity in my will and the charity merges with another charity, it would be for me, as the person who wrote the will, to have my will altered. If that did not happen, the money would not go to the new merged charity. That seems to put quite a lot of onus on people to keep up to date with what is happening in charity law. I welcome the cabinet secretary’s remarks that she will look at that. We need to make that a bit cleaner and tighter at stages 2 and 3.

I again welcome the bill and look forward to improving it over stages 2 and 3.

Meeting of the Parliament

Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Jeremy Balfour

Does Fergus Ewing agree that, with regard to the people who are regarded as trustees for church properties, it is actually the congregation that controls the properties and the trustees are simply names on a piece of paper, given that they cannot dispose of the property without the congregation’s approval?

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Jeremy Balfour

In recent weeks, there has been a growing number of reports of the Social Security Scotland website not functioning properly. Several of my constituents have waited for hours for responses from web chats. What representations have been made to the cabinet secretary on how Social Security Scotland plans to fix those issues?

Meeting of the Parliament

Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Jeremy Balfour

I thank the cabinet secretary for that clarification.

As our new convener mentioned—I welcome her to her role—another thing that came out in the evidence was the third sector’s need for clarification of how charity law works. There seemed to be quite a lot of misunderstanding or concern about that, so that needs to be clarified, as does some of how the bill will work in practice. I welcome the letter that we have received from the cabinet secretary, and I look forward to receiving the correspondence from OSCR. I gently point out both to OSCR and to the Scottish Government that we are working to quite a tight timescale for stage 2 amendments. I understand that that stage will happen early next month, which means that the amendments will have to be lodged this month—and we are already nearly half way through this month. I therefore hope that we will receive early correspondence from those bodies so that appropriate discussions and amendments can be brought forward in order to improve the bill.

In the time that is left to me, I will pick up on three areas of the bill at which we may need to look in a wee bit more depth. Sections 4 and 7 deal with disqualification from being a trustee. Again, there seems to be a bit of a lack of understanding of what that means in practice. I hope that OSCR will seek to clarify that as soon as possible.

Interestingly, the Law Society of Scotland picked up that the regulations that will follow on from the act will be vitally important for how arrangements work in practice. Although I am sure that the Scottish Government will do this, I seek reassurance that there will be a full consultation with the third sector on those regulations before they are brought to the Parliament for approval.

Perhaps we also need to look at protected trust deeds, which some individuals use when they face bankruptcy. I understand that, if someone is declared bankrupt, that lasts for only one calendar year, but that there is a longer period for protected trust deeds. Some people may thus be disbarred from being a trustee for that longer period of time. In the evidence, it became clear that we need a wider group of individuals to become trustees—a wider range, from other parts of society, who have perhaps not done so in the past—and that the possibility of disqualification may put people off.

The second area that I want to probe a little is interim trustees, which section 8 deals with. The question is, where will they come from? Certainly, the charities that I speak to in Lothian are desperate for people to become trustees. Again, maybe some clarification is needed. Will the Scottish Government or OSCR set up a panel of individuals that they can call on?

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 10 May 2023

Jeremy Balfour

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has put in place to support the palliative care sector, in light of reports that the number of people needing these services is estimated to rise by an additional 10,000 by 2040. (S6O-02206)

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 10 May 2023

Jeremy Balfour

Hospices will start closing if help cannot be sourced to match the national health service pay offer. Scottish charitable hospices need to find £15.5 million over the two years to 2024. The time for meetings and discussions is over. What can the Scottish Government do urgently to address the crisis in the palliative care sector?