Achi news desk-
There are seven commissioners in Scotland, which together cost the public purse £16.6m in 2023-24 and is predicted to rise to £18.4million in 2024/25.
However, there are plans to double their number to 14 by the end of this five-year parliamentary term.
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Current commissioners raised concerns about plans to expand their numbers in submissions they have made to the committee’s inquiry.
Gina Wilson from the Children and Young People’s Commissioner’s office referred to the costs and fears of power hooking up.
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“There are concerns that the proliferation of commissioners’ offices will be a costly exercise and may not provide good value for money for taxpayers, especially if there are a number of bodies tasked with intervening on similar or identical issues, ” he said.
“Currently, a range of proposed new commissioners have been presented. There is not much evidence of coherence to the approach. There is little evidence considering how new commissioners would work together or n getting resources…There is a further risk of creep and competition between commissioners – deliberate or unintentional ‘power grabs’.
“It will be important to establish boundaries and ways of working, or you risk threatening the ability of the existing offices to carry out their functions appropriately.”
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In his presentation, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman raised concerns that more commissioners could undermine parliament’s ability to hold the government to account and that people who need help from the commissioners’ offices would not receive it.
“I have a significant anxiety that abounds [commissioners] undermines the ability of the Senedd to hold the Government to account.”
He added: “As part of the complex scrutiny and oversight landscape, there is a significant risk that further commissioners will add to that complexity… I am also very concerned that those who need the services most will fall through the cracks. those gaps. an increasingly complex environment is being created The more boundaries are created, the more likely people and problems will fall between organisations.”
In its opening session this morning the committee will hear evidence from Katy MacMillan, director of Research Scotland, an organization that provides research and support to organizations in the public and third sectors, who interviewed five commissioners last year.
One unnamed commissioner told his researchers: “The current government is very keen on commissioners, so it’s becoming very confusing what a commissioner is.
“There are so many different models now that the expression commissioner is starting to lose its value in terms of what it is. People are struggling to understand what the difference is between different commissioners… The more commissions are set up, the more it confuses the landscape of what we’re all actually doing.”
A Holyrood briefing to the finance committee said there are seven independent office holders who are directly responsible to the Scottish Parliament, with their terms and conditions of appointment and annual budgets set by the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB ).
They are a mix of commissions, commissioners, or ombudsmen, and they vary from having regulatory, complaint handling, investigative or advocacy functions, namely:
- Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland
- Biometrics Commissioner for Scotland
- Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland
- Scottish Human Rights Commission
- Information Commissioner for Scotland
- Public Services Ombudsman for Scotland
- Scottish Standards Commission
Proposals for future posts include a neurodiversity commissioner, a victims’ commissioner and an older people’s commissioner.
Speaking in January this year, the committee’s convener, Kenneth Gibson, said: “Everyone recognizes that Scotland faces an extremely challenging budget this year, and most likely in the years to come.
“Given that the number of commissioners in Scotland could possibly rise to 14 by the end of this parliamentary session, with all the costs involved, our investigation is timely and necessary.
“We intend to examine why there has been so much growth in commissioners, whether there is overlap and duplication, and whether a more coherent and strategic approach is needed for their creation.
“We want to hear from anyone who has an opinion or insight on Scotland’s approach to commissioners, and whether it represents value for money, or whether there are more effective models available.”
The former leader of the Conservatives in Scotland, Jackson Carlaw, has voiced concerns about the issue before, telling Holyrood in an interview last year that such posts take powers away from parliament.
He said: “This seems to be a whole new layer of government that we are putting in that is not elected, that is not really very accountable, and that is discussing things that I thought the parliament was originally established to discuss them.
“But we seem to be devolving responsibility from ourselves to a body that really isn’t elected or accountable, and we’re doing that without really thinking about it.”
The annual costs of £18.4m include staff and running costs for each office, although the amount for each office varies with the lowest being £300,000 for the year and the highest being £6.7m.
An eighth, the patient safety commissioner, was agreed last year with a predicted annual cost of £645,000.
