Scottish Government

MG(06)28th Conclusions

MANAGEMENT GROUP

MINUTES OF MEETING HELD IN ST ANDREW'S HOUSE, EDINBURGH

AT 8.30AM ON THURSDAY, 31 AUGUST 2006

Agenda Item 1: Minutes of Previous Meeting and Matters Arising

1. The minutes of the meeting held on 17 August (MG(06)27th Conclusions) were approved. The Permanent Secretary welcomed Ruth Lewis of the taking stock review team who was attending as an observer.

Agenda Item 2: Current Issues and Cabinet Business (Paper MG(06)91)

Report from PS/First Minister and Alan Johnston

2. PS/First Minister said that the First Minister had spoken at the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce on 20 August at the last in the current series of business breakfasts, and would be attending events in Glasgow later in the week to publicise positive hospital waiting time statistics and the implementation of anti social dispersal orders. During the coming week the First Minister would be engaged a speech to the Fabian Society at Edinburgh University; an On the Record briefing on Monday, 4 September; and the opening debate of the new Parliamentary session. Mr Naysmith updated MG on a number of planned staffing changes in the First Minister's office and said that a note setting out the new arrangements would be sent to departments later that day.

3. Mr Johnston said that the Deputy First Minister had enjoyed a successful official visit to Portugal which had included meetings and engagements in the marine renewables sector. The Deputy First Minister had also met Sir George Cox, Chair of the Design Council to discuss taking forward recommendations in the Cox Review of Creativity in Business, which had highlighted the benefits of harnessing the UK's creative talents to stimulating business productivity and economic growth. During the coming week the Deputy First Minister would be engaged in a number of meetings relating to portfolio business, and was preparing for his participation in the opening debate in Parliament on Wednesday 6 September.

Events Planning Grid

4. MG noted the Events Planning Grid.

Cabinet Business

5. The Permanent Secretary gave a brief report from the Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, 30 August. Cabinet had discussed a range of issues, including arrangements for responding to Member's Bills; had noted positive trends in NHS Waiting Times and hospital cleaning standards; and the importance of reflecting the wide range of the Executive's achievements in external communications. MG noted progress in preparing papers for forthcoming Cabinet meetings.

Agenda Item 3: Update on Delivering the Efficient Government Programme

6. Mr Russell gave a presentation about the potential implications for the Executive's efficient government programme of the UK Governments proposals for its 2007 CSR set out in a HMT publication Releasing the resources to meet the challenges ahead: value for money in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review. Mr Russell said that the Executive had achieved its targets for 2005-06 efficiency savings, and that targets for 2006-07 and 2007-08, were on track which would enable the Executive to meet its overall target of £1.5 billion by 2008.

7. The Treasury report had come at a useful stage in the Executive's efficiency programme, and would help maintain momentum as the organisation integrated this with work on the Strategic Platform. For its CSR 07, the UK Government was proposing that efficiency gains of at least 2.5% per year should be made. If the Scottish Executive chose to adopt such a target, it would mean achieving recurring annual efficiency gains of around £2 billion by 2011. Mr Russell said that achieving efficiency savings on that scale would require an integrated and strategic approach, involving investment in procurement and ICT, effective asset management, the development of shared services, the strategic use of capital and resource budgets, and a programme of process reviews. The key to achieving these targets would be to fully integrate efficiency into the work and objectives of the Executive and those of its delivery partners. Mr Russell concluded the presentation by highlighting efficiency and productivity as the core challenge for the next Parliament.

8. In discussion the following points were made:

(a) The HMT report provided useful context and the likely emphasis on factoring efficiency into the UK spending review and as a result was relevant to the development of the Executive's strategic platform exercise;

(b) Given the lead in time required to identify and deliver efficiencies it would be important to further develop the Executive's strategy for the next Parliament;

(c) The analysis of the implications of the HMT proposals for the Executive's efficient government programme was welcome and compelling. It would be helpful to give further consideration to managing the efficiency programme to take account of the fact that much of the Executive's expenditure was spent through a variety of third parties many of whom were largely autonomous bodies;

(d) A target for efficiency savings on the scale envisaged in presentation would present a significant challenge given the proportion of expenditure allocated to staff costs;

(e) Consideration was needed about whether a portfolio based approach alone would yield savings on the scale envisaged. A pan agency/Executive approach which took account of portfolio contributions would make it easier to develop solutions likely to have a bigger impact and which resulted in greater savings;

(f) It would be important to ensure that in taking forward the next phase of the Executive's efficient government programme, account was taken of delivery partners' view that insufficient account was often taken of the cumulative effect of requests for action/information.

9. The Permanent Secretary thanked Mr Russell for a thought provoking presentation and said that the Strategic Platform Programme Board should consider further the issues raised in discussion in relation to a number of related strands of strategic platform work and should report back to Management Group ( Action: Dr Goudie and the Strategic Platform Board).

Agenda Item 4: Any Other Business

MG Correspondence - Employee Survey

10. MG approved recommendations set out in Derek Steele's minute on 24 August about proposals to gather the views of temporary staff in the forthcoming Employee Survey.

Cabinet/MG Secretariat

5 September 2006