Yes. Thank you, convener. I am grateful for the chance to address the committee on the supplementary memorandum that the Deputy First Minister lodged on 13 January.
The committee considered the wider devolved aspects of the UK Government’s Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill in its meeting on 8 October last year and noted that a supplementary LCM on the provisions on public sector exit payments might be brought forward, subject to the Scottish and UK Governments reaching agreement on the policy.
Following the committee’s earlier consideration, the two Governments reached agreement that, in the interests of securing value for taxpayers’ money and of public sector labour market mobility, the exit payment provisions should apply to senior staff movements within similar parts of the public sector across the UK. The Deputy First Minister agreed with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to progress a supplementary LCM on the understanding that the original provisions in the bill would be amended to confer powers on the Scottish ministers in relation to relevant devolved bodies. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury agreed to that on 5 November 2014. Appropriate amendments to the bill were tabled on 7 January for consideration by a House of Lords Grand Committee. Those amendments were agreed on 26 January. The bill, as amended, is expected to go to report stage in the House of Lords in March.
The supplementary memorandum outlined the relevant amendments to the bill, which cover four related substantive measures and one minor consequential change. In essence, the bill, as amended, provides for the Scottish ministers, rather than the Treasury, to make regulations on qualifying exit payments that are made by devolved public bodies with devolved workforces. Those regulations will be able to include certain provisions—for example, on exemptions from a repayment and on duties to ensure that repayments are made.
The bill also provides for the Scottish ministers, not the Treasury, to waive or give consent to waive repayments of exit payments made by devolved bodies. It provides for regulations, whether made by the Treasury or the Scottish ministers, to be made by negative procedure. That is on the ground that the regulations are likely to need frequent updating and will not be used to amend primary legislation or create offences.
While the memorandum covered the amendments as tabled and subsequently passed in the Lords, the committee will wish to know that the Treasury has just notified us that it expects to introduce further clarifying amendments at report stage. They will make it explicit that the purpose of the provisions is to recover qualifying exit payments from individuals who return to work within a year of leaving. That reflects the underlying policy position and therefore has the Scottish Government’s support.
The amendments to the bill and the further clarifications that are proposed will give effect to the agreement reached between Scottish and UK ministers in a way that allows the Scottish Government and the Parliament to determine the detail of future Scottish regulations, including which devolved bodies to include within the bill’s scope.
The Scottish Government is rigorous in its pursuit of value for money across the public sector. Audit Scotland and the Accounts Commission produced a report in 2013 into early departures from the public sector, including local government, and recommended controls over the re-employment, within the same body, of individuals who receive early departure deals. That approach was supported by the Public Audit Committee. The measures provided for in the bill more than respond to that recommendation, extending as they do to re-employment within a similar part of the public sector.
I therefore ask the committee to support the draft legislative consent motion.