Following my overseas trip to Bhutan last week in my role on the Finance & Public Administration Committee, this week it was straight back to the Scottish Parliament.
The Finance & Public Administration Committee met to discuss the cost effectiveness of Scottish public inquiries, taking evidence from several stakeholders, including the McGuiness Institute. The Economy & Fair Work Committee also met this week to take evidence from Consumer Scotland.
I was pleased to be part of the panel discussion of MSPs at the IPPR Scotland conference on Wednesday. Attendees had taken part in workshops throughout the day, and the panel provided the opportunity to discuss the overarching themes of fiscal challenges, the state of the economy, poverty and inequality, net zero and democracy.
On Thursday and Friday, I met with Homes for Scotland and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) respectively. The Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill is due to come before the Scottish Parliament later this term, so I was delighted to meet with Homes for Scotland for their perspective. I met with FSCS to find out more about their impact on Scotland’s financial services sector.
On Thursday, I spoke at General Questions. While I welcome the recently announced £20million Multi-Year Funding Programme 2025-26, the sector sees a growing trend of new groups looking for support. Following a recent publication by UK Music, they stress that funding volatility still threatens grassroots venues, touring and the economic stability of the sector in Scotland. You can watch my questions and the responses from the Cabinet Secretary in my previous post last night.
