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Chamber and committees

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 15 August 2025
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Displaying 3539 contributions

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Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Scottish Fiscal Commission (Fiscal Sustainability Report)

Meeting date: 29 April 2025

Kenneth Gibson

Thank you for that very helpful opening statement. The comments next to the very first graph on page 3 of the report sum the situation up: although health spending stands at 36 per cent of the Scottish budget now, it could grow to around 40 per cent by 2029-30 and to an astonishing 55 per cent in 2074-75. There has to be real concern about that, and we have to look at how we can possibly change it.

I do not want to steal John Mason鈥檚 thunder, as he always comments on our ability to project things 50 years into the future when there are so many changes, but, in the last two years, the Scottish Fiscal Commission has changed its projections of the Scottish population by 15 per cent, which is pretty drastic. You now predict that there will be 800,000 more people in Scotland than you had predicted a couple of years ago. One is understandably concerned about how projections within such a short period can be so hugely different.

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Scottish Budget Process in Practice

Meeting date: 29 April 2025

Kenneth Gibson

Do you feel that the Government is not meeting those standards?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Scottish Budget Process in Practice

Meeting date: 29 April 2025

Kenneth Gibson

I agree. I just do not think that they are particularly small, reasonable or appropriate.

You also say that the SHRC proposed that a citizen鈥檚 version of each key document should be published. What does that mean?

10:00  

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Scottish Budget Process in Practice

Meeting date: 29 April 2025

Kenneth Gibson

I said that I was going to challenge some things. The SHRC report recommends making budget publications available in an accessible, simplified format and in different languages with the participation of existing civil society groups. I understand what that means, but how would it work and what languages should the publications be available in? Who is going to want to read the Scottish budget in Hungarian, Urdu, Swahili or Spanish, for example? Surely that is just nonsense. Let us be honest: everybody in the country bar a small minority is pretty fluent in English, and I think that those who are not will have other priorities before reading the Scottish budget documents.

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Scottish Budget Process in Practice

Meeting date: 29 April 2025

Kenneth Gibson

It is interesting that committees may be somewhat loth to look at the MTFS and how it affects them. Perhaps we should look at that in the future. I feel that, when the new 成人快手 come in next year, there should be an element of induction in some of those areas to let them know what we are talking about. There is not much point if only 10 or 20 per cent of the Parliament is debating those issues effectively.

On how effective current public engagement is, you say:

鈥渢he Scottish Government has made some progress in making the budget process more transparent over the last four years but is still failing to reach standards considered adequate by international best practice and ... greater budget transparency is needed to realise human rights.鈥

What country or countries would you say are the gold standard in that regard?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Scottish Budget Process in Practice

Meeting date: 29 April 2025

Kenneth Gibson

That is a politician鈥檚 answer.

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Scottish Budget Process in Practice

Meeting date: 29 April 2025

Kenneth Gibson

How closely has the Government stuck to the 2023 MTFS?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Scottish Budget Process in Practice

Meeting date: 29 April 2025

Kenneth Gibson

The fewer, more integrated documents there are, the better, I would have thought.

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Scottish Budget Process in Practice

Meeting date: 29 April 2025

Kenneth Gibson

The Fraser of Allander Institute and other organisations have raised concerns about the fiscal sustainability delivery plan not being incorporated directly into the medium-term financial strategy. What is your view on that?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Scottish Budget Process in Practice

Meeting date: 29 April 2025

Kenneth Gibson

I do not doubt that the committee has a lot of sympathy for that. We pressed for the MTFS and we were disappointed that there was not one last year.

To reflect the point that David Phillips was trying to make, we have waited this long and, if we wait another few weeks, we might be able to get a more robust, more impactful MTFS. That is the position that I think he is taking. He is talking about what happens after the summer but, to me, that seems like a long time. The difficulty is that, if the strategy were to come out after 11 June, there would be difficulties with finding the time to scrutinise it before the autumn.