By David Scott in Edinburgh
03 September 2009
Leading finance officers believe that the Scottish Government has missed the chance to radically reform public services.
According to CIPFA, the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill does not do as its name implies and makes only a ‘tentative step’ towards reform and simplification.
The institute’s view that the Bill does not go far enough is stressed in a submission it is due to make to the Scottish Parliament finance committee on September 9.
When the Bill was published in June, Finance Secretary John Swinney described it as ‘another important milestone’ in the Scottish Government’s reform agenda.
The aim of the Bill is to abolish some specialist advisory bodies and merge quangos and inspectorates such as the Social Work Inspection Agency and the Care Commission.
In the submission, Angela Scott, head of CIPFA in Scotland, points out that the release of the Bill during an economic downturn provides a unique opportunity to test draft legislation in circumstances not envisaged when the need for public service reform first emerged.
But, she said: ‘The Bill, in itself, does not reform public services as the title would imply. In fact, it represents a tentative step only towards some elements of reform and simplification.’
Set against a review carried out by Professor Lorne Crerar two years ago, the Bill represented ‘a missed opportunity when far-reaching reform could have been achieved’, she added. Crerar called for fewer regulation, inspection and audit watchdogs and a single national scrutiny body. ‘The case remains for a single scrutiny body,’ Scott said.
She added that the ‘limited ambition of the Bill is in effect reflected in the limited amount of financial savings [£3m] that are projected’.
CIPFA will give oral evidence on its submission when the reform Bill is considered at next week’s meeting of the finance committee.
03 September 2009
Leading finance officers believe that the Scottish Government has missed the chance to radically reform public services.
According to CIPFA, the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill does not do as its name implies and makes only a ‘tentative step’ towards reform and simplification.
The institute’s view that the Bill does not go far enough is stressed in a submission it is due to make to the Scottish Parliament finance committee on September 9.
When the Bill was published in June, Finance Secretary John Swinney described it as ‘another important milestone’ in the Scottish Government’s reform agenda.
The aim of the Bill is to abolish some specialist advisory bodies and merge quangos and inspectorates such as the Social Work Inspection Agency and the Care Commission.
In the submission, Angela Scott, head of CIPFA in Scotland, points out that the release of the Bill during an economic downturn provides a unique opportunity to test draft legislation in circumstances not envisaged when the need for public service reform first emerged.
But, she said: ‘The Bill, in itself, does not reform public services as the title would imply. In fact, it represents a tentative step only towards some elements of reform and simplification.’
Set against a review carried out by Professor Lorne Crerar two years ago, the Bill represented ‘a missed opportunity when far-reaching reform could have been achieved’, she added. Crerar called for fewer regulation, inspection and audit watchdogs and a single national scrutiny body. ‘The case remains for a single scrutiny body,’ Scott said.
She added that the ‘limited ambition of the Bill is in effect reflected in the limited amount of financial savings [£3m] that are projected’.
CIPFA will give oral evidence on its submission when the reform Bill is considered at next week’s meeting of the finance committee.
