SB(07)17th Conclusions
MEETING OF THE SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE STRATEGIC BOARD:
THURSDAY, 9 AUGUST 2007
Present
Sir John Elvidge (chair)
Shonaig Macpherson CBE
Robert Gordon CB
Andrew Goudie
Philip Rycroft
Richard Wakeford
Apologies were received from Bill Bound, David Fisher and Kevin Woods.
In Attendance
Owen Kelly
Sarah Smith
Sarah Davidson
Donald Cameron
Linda Rosborough, (For Agenda Item 4 only)
Ruth Parsons (For Agenda Item 4 & 5 only)
Ros Cockerell (For Agenda Item 6 only)
Alyson Stafford (For Agenda Items 5, 6 & 7 only)
Fiona Robertson (For Agenda Item 5 only)
Agenda Item 1: Minutes and Matters Arising
1. The minutes of the previous meeting (SB(07)16th conclusions) were agreed subject to revision in paragraph 9(a). Under matters arising:
Paragraph 6: The Permanent Secretary said that since no further issues had been raised by Board members in relation to the content or coverage of the employee survey, expressions of interest had now been invited from contractors. He had concluded after discussion with Professor Bound, that the survey as drafted was likely to capture the views of staff about the effectiveness of new ways of working within the revised organisational structure. In any case, there would be an opportunity to remind staff about the context in which the survey took place at the time the survey was launched. In response to a question from Richard Wakeford the Permanent Secretary said that he would consider whether the questionnaire gave staff the opportunity to comment specifically about the effectiveness of the Strategic Board (Action: Permanent Secretary).
Paragraph 7: The Permanent Secretary noted that the Chief Executive of Transport Scotland, Malcolm Reed, would attend the Board on 16 August to report on progress in taking forward actions from the meeting on 5 July.
Paragraph 13: The Permanent Secretary said that after discussion with Professor Bound about the role of non executive directors on Programme Boards he had decided that:
- Each Programme Board should have 2 non executive directors who would not necessarily be the same people as non execs appointed to the relevant Audit Committee and who would be responsible for challenge around the delivery of the strategic objective;
- In addition, Directors General were free to invite subject experts to participate in the work of the Board but not as non executive directors and not as permanent members;
- Ministers should be invited to attend meetings of the Programme Board as necessary.
The Permanent Secretary added that the process to assess existing non executive directors against new agreed criteria was nearing its conclusion, and that Paul Gray would report to the Board shortly on the work he and Alyson Stafford had been doing on the standardisation of reporting from Programme Boards to Cabinet and the Board.
Agenda Item 2: Report from Cabinet
2. Ms Davidson reported on the Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, 7 August and said that Cabinet had heard a full report of the contingency planning arrangements undertaken following the reported outbreak of foot and mouth disease in England. Cabinet had commended the actions of officials involved in handling the response in Scotland. Cabinet had also finalised the arrangements for the launch of the independence White Paper Choosing Scotland's Future: a national conversation. The Permanent Secretary said that he intended to issue a joint statement to staff about the White Paper on the intended launch date, Tuesday, 14 August and would be discussing specific issues contained in the White Paper such as proposals for a separate Scottish civil service with the trades unions.
Agenda Item 3: Risk Management
3. The Board discussed actions in place to address emerging risks to a successful transition to the new administration.
Agenda Item 4: Website Strategy
4. The Permanent Secretary said that he had invited Ms Rosborough to present details of possible actions to rationalise public access to information about government services and to personal information held by the public authorities. Ms Rosborough said that the UK Government was working on ways to reduce the number of websites offering access to government services to make it easier for people to access relevant information and services and as a contribution to the efficiency agenda. The presentation was intended to demonstrate what could be done in Scotland in relation to a Scottish citizen facing portal and to seek the Board's views about the most effective means of taking this work forward. New technology offered opportunities to improve the delivery of integrated services which would promote the transformation of citizen focused more efficient services. A wide range of publicly funded and run websites offered access to information and services in Scotland and the 687 websites identified for convergence onto the UK Government's DirectGov website was an indication of the potential scope for rationalisation.
5. Other countries provided good examples of what could be achieved ranging from low cost, relatively unsophisticated but successful approaches in Ireland to the sophisticated, high cost approach adopted by Norway and the Canada. There was now an opportunity to link to work being done by local authorities to create a Scottish citizen portal which would provide access to services and to produce a Scottish equivalent of DirectGov. The vision was for integrated, citizen focused web services throughout the Scottish public sector which would improve services and, in time, yield efficiency savings. Risks included reluctance by some organisation to share responsibility for information, potential costs and anxieties about the security of personal information. Ms Rosborough invited the Board to agree to a strategic integrative approach involving the Executive, its Agencies and local government working in partnership, to build a citizen facing website to be launched with citizen accounts.
6. In discussion the following points were made:
(a) The suggested approach seemed appropriate but it would be important to be clear about the distinction between providing information about services and information about policy;
(b) It would be worth looking at the schools based internet service GLOW which could interface with the new service given its advanced understanding of the relevant technology;
(c) Although some countries had developed integrated services in a well planned, medium term approach others had simply moved quickly to rationalise services. Both had proved effective, but in any case it would be important to develop a clear view at the outset of what the final product was intended to be;
(d) High level of broadband access in Scotland provided a genuine opportunity to make progress on this issue which would be of particular importance to remote and rural communities;
(e) It would be worth exploring the benefit of a similar service in the United States which avoided people having to enter personal information over and over again which reduced the irritation factor for the citizen and which was also of value to the state given increased consistency of information in relation to applications for services;
(f) There were important links to work being done on the re-branding of the Executive as the Scottish Government and also an opportunity to bring together small bits of government and present them as a single joined up entity;
(g) It would also be important to be clear about what other stakeholders, including NDPBs were doing in relation to this issue and to generate buy in and to provide assurance around security of personal information.
7. The Board endorsed the direction of travel proposed in the presentation and agreed that the issue should be included in either the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth or the Permanent Secretary's speech to the NDPB conference on 4 September, and that the intention to make progress in this are should be signalled in advance (Action: Ms Rosborough).
Agenda Item 5: Strategic Spending Review: The Next Steps
8. The Board discussed a report from Dr Goudie on progress with the Strategic Spending Review 2007 and agreed the terms of further advice to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth.
Agenda Item 6: Finance Directors Report (SB(07)36)
9. Alyson Stafford introduced paper SB(07)36 which provided a high level forecast of end of year outturn expenditure informed by the first quarter of the financial year. Ms Stafford said that the format of the report had been revised to take account of the changed structure of the organisation and that programme expenditure was now recorded by portfolio as opposed to by department. Monitoring against budgets approved by Parliament would in future be given greater focus in the reports to the Strategic Board and outturn against Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) would continue to be monitored as before. The report indicated that expenditure over the first quarter was just under 25% of total budget; a shortfall of £31million on capital which was likely to decrease over the year; and a shortfall of £85million on DEL to be managed down over the year. It would be important to ensure that no additional recurring resource expenditure was entered into beyond the spending incurred as a result of the new administrations 100 day commitments which had been factored into the forecast outturn figures. Ms Stafford concluded by saying that she intended to circulate proposals for revisions to the minimum standards of financial reports to allow Directors General to consider the format of financial information available for their directorates.
10. The Board noted the Finance Director's report and agreed the importance of continuing to manage resource expenditure effectively against budget and of ensuring that no new additional recurring expenditure should be incurred beyond that already agreed in relation to the 100 day commitments of the new administration.
(Richard Wakeford, Sarah Smith, Owen Kelly and Sarah Davidson left the meeting)
Agenda Item 7: Accountability and Scheme of Delegation (SB(07)37)
11 . The Board agreed proposals in paper SB(07)37 which set out arrangements for the delegation of financial responsibilities within the Scottish Executive. The Board noted that a written scheme of delegation would be prepared and that letters would be issued setting out financial responsibilities and delegated authorities with a view to the formal introduction of the scheme from the beginning of financial year 2008-09.
Agenda Item 8: Freedom of Information (SB(07)38)
The record of the discussion under this agenda item is considered exempt from publication at this time and has been redacted.
Agenda Item 9: Any Other Business
12. There was no other business.
Date of Next Meeting
13. Thursday, 16 August at 8.30am.
Cabinet and Corporate Business Secretariat
August 2007