By David Williams
10 December 2009
An influential committee of MSPs has called on the Scottish Government to provide clearer and more detailed budget information on its commitment to protecting frontline services and supporting economic growth.
In a report on the draft budget for 2010/11, the Holyrood finance committee expressed concern at an ‘apparent lack of transparency’ on efficiency savings, which made it impossible to assess their impact.
The report followed the committee’s scrutiny of the draft budget together with a strategic view of public finances in the medium term.
The committee said it was not yet clear how measures proposed in the draft budget corresponded to the objectives stated for them.
‘The committee requests that the Scottish Government provides it with a more detailed explanation of how it has approached the prioritisation between services and supporting economic growth,’ the report added.
The MSPs also demanded more detail on how ministers planned to approach ‘the essential debate on achieving efficiency in public services’.
Auditor general Bob Black told a Scottish Policy Innovation Forum meeting in Edinburgh on December 4 that the Scottish public sector needed much better information that linked its spending with actual service provision, costs and performance.
He said: ‘Most of the public sector needs to get much better at measuring and improving its productivity but reports from Audit Scotland often contain the finding that the basic information is not there.’
Black said the finance committee would be greatly helped by ‘better information on costs, activities and service performance across most of the public sector’.
The Scottish Government had strengthened its financial management and performance in recent years, but risks remained and further improvements were needed, the auditor general said.
10 December 2009
An influential committee of MSPs has called on the Scottish Government to provide clearer and more detailed budget information on its commitment to protecting frontline services and supporting economic growth.
In a report on the draft budget for 2010/11, the Holyrood finance committee expressed concern at an ‘apparent lack of transparency’ on efficiency savings, which made it impossible to assess their impact.
The report followed the committee’s scrutiny of the draft budget together with a strategic view of public finances in the medium term.
The committee said it was not yet clear how measures proposed in the draft budget corresponded to the objectives stated for them.
‘The committee requests that the Scottish Government provides it with a more detailed explanation of how it has approached the prioritisation between services and supporting economic growth,’ the report added.
The MSPs also demanded more detail on how ministers planned to approach ‘the essential debate on achieving efficiency in public services’.
Auditor general Bob Black told a Scottish Policy Innovation Forum meeting in Edinburgh on December 4 that the Scottish public sector needed much better information that linked its spending with actual service provision, costs and performance.
He said: ‘Most of the public sector needs to get much better at measuring and improving its productivity but reports from Audit Scotland often contain the finding that the basic information is not there.’
Black said the finance committee would be greatly helped by ‘better information on costs, activities and service performance across most of the public sector’.
The Scottish Government had strengthened its financial management and performance in recent years, but risks remained and further improvements were needed, the auditor general said.
