Finance Committee - Scrutiny of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill
For information - the Bill has now been passed by the Parliament. This webpage describes the Finance Committee's work on the Bill.
Introduction
The Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill was introduced in the Parliament on 28 May 2009. The Finance Committee has been designated the lead committee on the Bill.
Copies of the Bill and accompanying documents can be found via the link below—
Given the wide-ranging nature of the Bill, three other committees have been designated as secondary committees. The secondary committees have now completed their work on the Bill and have published their reports to the Finance Committee. Full information on the secondary committees' work can be found on their webpages (please follow the links below).
Background
The overall purpose of the Bill is to—
"help simplify and improve the landscape of Scottish public bodies, to deliver more effective, co-ordinated government that can better achieve its core functions for the benefit of the people of Scotland"
The Policy Memorandum explains that the Bill will achieve this through—
- providing for the dissolution of certain public bodies;
- the transfer or delegation of certain specific functions between public bodies;
- the establishment of new national bodies for health and social work and social care scrutiny and for arts and culture, bringing together and improving the functions of existing separate bodies;
- providing for general powers to effect organisational and other changes to the public sector landscape or to remove or reduce burdens throughout the Scottish economy which are identified as holding back economy, efficiency, productivity or profitability; and
- placing a duty on scrutiny bodies to co-operate with each other and to ensure an appropriate user focus in how they fulfil their functions.
Finance Committee - Stage 1 Scrutiny
Written evidence
The Committee has issued a call for evidence on the Bill and the deadline for submissions has now passed.
Please follow link below to the call for evidence and the submissions received.
Oral evidence
The Committee has now completed its oral evidence taking sessions, which took place over seven weeks, from 1 September to 27 October. The committee papers and Official Reports from each meeting can be found on the Meeting Papers page (click link).
Report
The Committee published its Stage 1 Report on Friday 11 December. Please follow the links below to the report and accompanying news release.
The Scottish Government provided an initial response to the Committee's concerns on Part 2 of the Bill prior to the Stage 1 debate. Please follow the link below to the correspondence.
Stage 1 debate
The Stage 1 debate on the Bill took place on Thursday 7 January 2010 and the Parliament agreed to the general principles of the Bill. The Official Report of the debate can be found at the following link:
Stage 2
The Committee began Stage 2 proceedings (line by line scrutiny of the Bill) at its meeting on 26 January 2010. Further information can be found on the Bill webpage (click link).
Stage 3
The Stage 3 debate and final vote on the Bill took place on Thursday 25 March 2010. The Bill was passed by the Parliament.
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Contact: For specific information on the Committee's scrutiny of the Bill, please contact Allan Campbell, Assistant Clerk to the Committee, on 0131 348 5451 or email finance.committee@scottish.parliament.uk
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