By David Scott
8 April 2010
The Scottish Government has been urged by the CBI business lobby to end its ‘institutional bias’ against the private sector and encourage more competition.
CBI Scotland claimed that recent decisions taken in Scotland to ban alternative providers of GP services, hospital catering and cleaning and prisons were ‘misguided’.
It made these claims in a submission to the Holyrood finance committee as part of the MSPs’ inquiry into the Scottish Government’s budget strategy.
The CBI said competition in Scotland was not working as it should. ‘Without concerted action from government to ensure markets are fair and barriers to entry are removed, the benefits to service quality and value will be lost,’ the submission said.
The business lobby argued that competition could increase value for money in public services and help achieve the cost reductions that were urgently needed.
The submission cited examples of successes in England and Wales. It claimed that competition had improved outcomes in all prisons as the publicly run establishments had adopted best practice.
CBI Scotland assistant director David Lonsdale said: ‘Greater competition in the delivery of public services has the potential to drive up performance and ensure better value for money, which will be critical as the public finances enter a far leaner period over the next decade.’
8 April 2010
The Scottish Government has been urged by the CBI business lobby to end its ‘institutional bias’ against the private sector and encourage more competition.
CBI Scotland claimed that recent decisions taken in Scotland to ban alternative providers of GP services, hospital catering and cleaning and prisons were ‘misguided’.
It made these claims in a submission to the Holyrood finance committee as part of the MSPs’ inquiry into the Scottish Government’s budget strategy.
The CBI said competition in Scotland was not working as it should. ‘Without concerted action from government to ensure markets are fair and barriers to entry are removed, the benefits to service quality and value will be lost,’ the submission said.
The business lobby argued that competition could increase value for money in public services and help achieve the cost reductions that were urgently needed.
The submission cited examples of successes in England and Wales. It claimed that competition had improved outcomes in all prisons as the publicly run establishments had adopted best practice.
CBI Scotland assistant director David Lonsdale said: ‘Greater competition in the delivery of public services has the potential to drive up performance and ensure better value for money, which will be critical as the public finances enter a far leaner period over the next decade.’
