The Scottish Parliament: - Annual Reports - Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

This report covers the period from April 2005 to March 2006 and is the first report to cover a full year in our permanent home at Holyrood. Indeed, with the move into our new home, much of the focus of the work of the Corporate Body has changed to ensure that all of those wishing to participate in parliamentary business or who just wish to visit this unique building can do so. However, as always, this report allows Members of the Scottish Parliament to see what has been achieved over the year and how the money allocated to the Parliament has been spent on all areas. This is an important role for the SPCB in its interaction with Members who elected it to act on their behalf to ensure the provision of the property, staff and services required for the Parliament’s purposes.
This year’s report follows the same format as previous years with the structure reflecting our management plan and which, quite appropriately has support to Members as our main priority. The report also includes details of the work which has taken place to promote participation in Parliamentary business as well as highlighting a number of high profile events which have taken place at Holyrood over this time.
I hope that you find this Report helpful in providing an understanding of the issues discussed and decisions taken by the Corporate Body.

Presiding Officer and Chair of the
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

During this reporting period, membership of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) saw 2 changes. Robert Brown MSP was replaced by Nora Radcliffe MSP in June 2005, whilst in January 2006 Andrew Welsh MSP stood down from the SPCB and was replaced by Kenny MacAskill MSP. The membership now comprises George Reid MSP, Kenny MacAskill MSP, Duncan McNeil MSP, Nora Radcliffe MSP and John Scott MSP.

The portfolio arrangements enable SPCB members to have oversight for specific issues and areas and for those members to answer PQs relating to those areas on behalf of the SPCB.

The portfolio arrangements continue to prove beneficial in providing the opportunity for SPCB members to input into the preparation and resolution of issues.

Following the arrival of the two new members, the portfolio arrangements were reviewed. It was agreed that these should mirror the structure within the Parliament. The portfolio arrangements at the end of this reporting period were therefore as follows:

During the course of this reporting year, we updated our practices and procedures to reflect the introduction of a number of initiatives such as SPCB oral question time as well as the revision of the portfolio arrangements. These procedures govern the workings of the SPCB and the SPCB secretariat and a copy of these can be found on SPEIR or by following the attached link.

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA), which came into effect at the beginning of 2005, continued to have an impact on the work of the SPCB and staff within the Scottish Parliament.

Over this reporting period, a total of 292 FOI requests were received. These requests covered topics as diverse as:

In order to ensure that the Scottish Parliament’s allowances system is as open and accessible as possible, and with our obligations under FOISA in mind, it was agreed that all Members’ allowances information should be published on the Parliament’s website.

A joint MSP/parliamentary staff working group was established to report on the options for publication. After careful consideration of the group’s report, the Corporate Body agreed the format and content of the information to be published and, following a great deal of work, the first ‘batch’ of on-line allowances information – quarters 1 and 2 of 2005-06 – was published in June 2006.

We consider that the facility, which allows members of the public to view and search on-line MSPs claims and accompanying receipts in respect of allowances claimed while carrying out parliamentary duties, was an important step in ensuring that the work of the parliament continues to be as open and transparent as possible.

Over the course of this reporting year, we answered 139 written questions covering a wide range of topics and covering our full range of activities.

In addition to this, following the successful pilot of an SPCB oral question time, 2 more question time sessions were held in the Chamber on 1 February 2006 and 10 May 2006. These sessions, which allow MSPs to ask the SPCB about issues dealt with by the Corporate Body, continued to be well attended with a wide range of subjects being discussed. Copies of the questions asked and the responses given can be found on the Parliament’s website.

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) provides a fast and efficient research, information and documentation service to MSPs, their staff and parliamentary staff. Over the period of this annual report the Information Centre answered over 10,000 enquiries and published 95 in-depth briefings to support the work of parliamentary committees and individual Members. SPICe also provided over 100 briefings to inform the work of the Public Petitions Committee and numerous background papers to support the work of other committees throughout the parliamentary year. SPICe provided research resources for every parliamentary debate and tracked the progress of each bill on the website. This year SPICe also provided briefing material to support the Festival of Politics, the Parliament-led Futures Forum and attendance by Members at the annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference.

In March 2004, the SPCB approved a number of recommendations to improve support to Members’ local offices.

Following the implementation of these recommendations, a survey of Members’ local office staff was carried out to assess the impact of these changes as well as to discover any further action which could be taken to improve support.

An action plan was subsequently drawn up which continued to take forward the SPCB’s ongoing commitment to local offices by implementing actions which had arisen from the survey. These included running local office staff events within the Parliament as well as the creation of a directory of support services which can be used by Members’ staff.

The SPCB is constantly seeking to provide the best possible services to MSPs and their staff. An important tool to help us assess how Members and their staff rate the services we provide is through our Members’ Survey.

This survey, which was issued in June 2005, was the second such survey, and sought the views of Members and their staff on the wide range of services provided by the SPCB.

We were pleased to note the number of positive results across the wide range of parliamentary services, but to ensure that our services continued to meet the high expectations, an action plan was put in place to address those areas of concern which were identified.

The SPCB considers all requests for the appointment of advisers to committees where the appointment is for more than 15 days or at a higher rate than the standard daily rate of £137. During the course of this reporting year, the SPCB considered and agreed applications from the Education, Subordinate Legislation and Enterprise and Culture Committees.

In May 2005 it became clear that the Non Executive Bills Unit (NEBU) was reaching capacity in terms of the number of bill proposals it could support. In order to ensure that there were adequate resources available, we agreed that prioritisation criteria should be applied to those proposals which NEBU was currently supporting.

Following the application of the criteria, we prepared a report setting out a list of those proposals to be taken forward, and invited Parliament to endorse the report. After an interesting and well attended debate on 26 October 2006, the Parliament endorsed both the prioritisation criteria and the bill proposals which would be taken forward by NEBU.

Part of our role in ensuring that the Parliament has the accommodation and services it needs, is to ensure that adequate contingency plans are in place should the Chamber and/or other areas of the Parliament become unavailable. These contingency plans cover an emergency situation where the imperative is for the Parliament to meet as quickly as possible as well as offering a more fully resourced plan.

We have continued to review these contingency plans over the course of the past year to ensure that they meet the needs of the Parliament.

Under the arrangements for the registration of Members’ Interests, where the SPCB approve in advance the receipt by Members of travel and hospitality etc, the Member does not then have to register that receipt with the Register of Members’ Interests. During this reporting period, the SPCB considered 26 such applications and approved the details of the travel and other associated costs. These included:

1.11.1 Procedures Committee Report – Procedures Relating to Crown Appointments

On 9 March, the Procedures Committee published its report in relation to Crown appointees. We welcomed the Committee’s recommendations and have already implemented a number of the recommendations. We are also currently working with officeholders and an independent assessor to put in place an annual appraisal process.

During this reporting period, the existing contract of the Standards Commissioner was due to expire. The Corporate Body had responsibility for overseeing the appointment/re-appointment process and for making a recommendation to Parliament.

On March 16 2006, the Parliament approved our recommendation and the reappointment of Jim Dyer as Standards Commissioner for a period of three years.

Following the recommendations of the Procedures Committee, the SPCB convened a reappointment panel to consider the three part-time Deputy Ombudsmen for reappointment for a second term. The process was overseen by an independent assessor.

On 13 September 2006, the Parliament approved our recommendation and the reappointment of Carolyn Hirst, Eric Drake and Lewis Shand Smith as Deputy Public Services Ombudsmen for a period of 12 months.

At the beginning of March 2006, the Finance Committee wrote to the SPCB to announce that it was conducting an inquiry into the accountability and governance of commissioners, ombudsman and others with a regulatory role that were set up since the establishment of the Parliament.

Given the role of the SPCB in these matters, we were invited to submit evidence on a number of issues raised by the Committee. We welcomed the opportunity to feed into this inquiry and hope the Committee found it useful.

Under the Standing Orders Rule 3.13, members of the Scottish Commission for Public Audit are appointed by the SPCB, which is then required to seek the agreement of the Parliament for any appointment by way of a motion.

In October, Parliament considered a motion by the Corporate Body and agreed the appointment of Margaret Smith MSP to the Commission in the place of George Lyon MSP.

The Finance Committee is responsible for scrutinising budget proposals for bodies which draw funds from the Scottish Consolidated Fund, namely the Scottish Executive, the SPCB and Audit Scotland. Written agreements are in place between the Finance Committee and the SPCB on the budgeting processes which are adopted.

During the course of the year, this agreement was amended to extend the deadlines by which the SPCB is required to submit its expenditure proposals to the Finance Committee and to simplify the procedure where a provisional expenditure plan does not require to be submitted.

The SPCB is responsible for ensuring that all MSPs have access to relevant documents and information services during Chamber business. Following approaches by a number of Members regarding problems being encountered in and around the Chamber, we undertook to take steps in order to ensure that this service was as efficient as possible. As a result we established a desk in the Press Conference Room to enable a member of SPICe staff to be located there and answer queries from Members and monitor document supplies in the Chamber.

In addition, on business days the Press Conference Room is now also used as a Members’ lounge with tea, coffee and fruit being available. We also made available two workstations with PCs and a printer for Members to use. This facility has proved to be extremely popular especially during Stage 3 debates.

Interest in the Scottish Parliament and the building continued to be high over the course of this reporting period, with ELU organising over 150 visits during this time. These included:

A measure of the success and impact of the Holyrood building has been the high number of event organisers who sought to use the building as a venue. This level of interest is encouraging and sits well with the Parliament’s aim to be open and accessible to all, and is evidence of the Scottish Parliament’s fulfilment of one of its purposes, which is to encourage public engagement. The Corporate Body strongly supports the principle that the building, as well as the Parliament itself, belongs to the people of Scotland. However, given that the Corporate Body’s function is to provide the Parliament, or ensure that the Parliament is provided, with the property, staff and services required for the Parliament’s purposes, it must ensure that the provision of events does not frustrate other purposes of the Parliament.

There was a five fold increase in the number of events following migration to the new building with around 20,500 people attending events as diverse as a live music event for the Cross Party Group on Contemporary Music, a reception to mark Scottish Inter-Faith Week and the Carnegie Awards ceremony.

To ensure that adequate resources were available to host these events, the Corporate Body agreed a policy on events which provides a number of measures including a set of objectives and criteria to be applied to requests for events.

In total there has been over 250 events including briefings for Members, receptions and seminars on topics that were linked to parliamentary business and which supported Members in their wider role.

As well as the high number of events which the Parliament hosts on a day to day basis, we have hosted a number of very high profile events which have promoted the Parliament to a world wide audience. More details on these events can be found below.

In October 2005 the Scottish Parliament hosted the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy and International Philanthropy Symposium, an event which honoured international philanthropists from across the world. This was the first time the ceremony was held outside the United States. Delegates commenced the day with 6 concurrent workshops on Poverty and Health; Environment and Sustainable Development; Education; International Peace, Justice and Security; Democracy, Governance and Civil Society; and Legal, Fiscal and Governance.

Past Carnegie Medal recipients and other distinguished guests from around the world attended the Carnegie Medal Ceremony which took place in the Chamber, hosted by the Presiding Officer and compered by BBC broadcaster and journalist Sally Magnusson. The 2006 medal winners were The Aga Khan, Agnes Gund, Sir Tom Farmer, Eleanor Hewlett Gimon on behalf of the Hewlett Family, Anna Southall on behalf of the Cadbury Family and Susan Packard Orr on behalf of the Packard Family.

July 2005 saw the G8 summit held in Gleneagles. Over the course of the summit, a great deal of attention was focused on Edinburgh with a number of marches and protests taking place during this time.

While not directly involved, this had a major impact on us in terms of security both for passholders and non-passholders with special arrangements being put in place to ensure that all of those working in or visiting the Parliament could do so safely.

The “Malawi after Gleneagles: A Commission for Africa Case-Study” conference in November was attended by 200 delegates including HRH The Princess Royal, HE Bingu wa Mutharika, President of Malawi, Thandika Mkandawire, Director, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and Sir David Steel KBE.

The twin objectives of the Conference were to inform Scottish public opinion, and a wider audience, about Malawi’s developmental needs and priorities and to consider the implications for Malawi of the conclusions reached by the Commission for Africa and the Millennium Development Goals Summit held earlier in the year. For the President and his government, the conference offered an opportunity to showcase their reform agenda and also increase awareness in Scotland of the problems faced by developing countries. It also demonstrated Scotland’s sustained interest in development issues in general - and Malawi in particular - beyond the G8 summit, and built on strong and continuing links between Scotland and Malawi. There was a very strong Malawian presence, including key ministers and senior officials, parliamentarians, academics, representatives of faith organisations, NGO leaders and a business delegation.

The closing ceremony of the J8 Global Citizenship Programme Summit was held in the Scottish Parliament in July. The J8 (which gives young people the opportunity to express their opinions on global issues) used the G8 Gleneagles Summit as a framework within which to investigate issues such as international development, trade, climate change and health. A competition across all UK secondary schools invited schools to participate in a J8 Summit competition; the challenge was to produce their own communiqué on one of the two themes that Prime Minister Tony Blair had announced as the main focus of the G8 Summit, Africa and climate change.

The 10 winning school groups from the UK joined with young delegates from each of the other G8 countries (France, Germany, the US, Canada, Japan, Italy and Russia) in Edinburgh and debated topical issues such as poverty, trade and employment. The closing ceremony took the form of African Drumming Workshops, presentations and speeches in the Chamber and a Reception in the Garden Lobby.

The Enterprise and Culture Committee co-hosted the 2nd Business in Parliament Conference along with the Scottish Executive. This 2-day event was attended by over 200 business people from all across Scotland, offering the opportunity to discuss their priorities with Ministers and MSPs.

Over half of the delegates that attended filled in feedback forms, with well over 95% of these rating the conference as "good" or "excellent". The comments from delegates also demonstrated strong support for a similar event again, and a number of suggestions for future themes were given.

It was agreed that a third such conference should be held and a report on this event will be included in next year’s report.

During the year, Scotland's Futures Forum established itself at Holyrood and is now an important resource for MSPs. The Forum has developed a very successful international lecture series, cafe events, and has undertaken a year long futures project - looking at the positive aspects of Scotland having an ageing population - the results of which will be published in January 2007.

During 2006, the Forum has successfully brought fresh perspectives and new ideas to Holyrood and brought business and academics around the table with MSPs and policy makers. This participative style has proved very popular with businesses, universities and community groups, and very useful to MSPs. With nearly 1000 members, and a newly published prospectus for 2007-2011, the Forum looks set to continue being a valuable asset to the Scottish Parliament and its Members in the coming years

Details on how organisations can become involved in the Forum's work can be found at www.scotlandfutureforum.org

August 2005 witnessed a ground-breaking addition to the Edinburgh festival season, when the Scottish Parliament hosted the inaugural Festival of Politics.

The Festival of Politics set out to demonstrate that politics is diverse and for everyone, not just for politicians, and that Holyrood can engage people in politics in new and innovative ways.

The Festival presented the public with a unique opportunity to take part in a range of debates and events bringing together the worlds of politics, media and the arts, with the Parliament’s Chamber hosting events featuring nationally and internationally renowned figures. Here, Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave gave her personal view on the importance of human rights, and renowned BBC journalist Andrew Marr examined the relationship between the media and democracy.

In total some 3,000 people from Scotland, the rest of the UK and abroad attended 22 events in the Parliament during the 3 days of the Festival. Festival events held in the Chamber were simultaneously webcast, providing potential exposure to a global audience. The Festival was extremely well received by the public, with 95% of audience members surveyed rating the events they attended as good or very good.

Given the success of the inaugural Festival of Politics we agreed that an expanded event should be held in August 2006. Our next report will contain a summary of the 2006 event and a report on the outcomes.

During the course of the year we continued to operate the guided tour service for visitors to the Holyrood building. These tours continued to be extremely popular with over 73,500 people taking advantage of this service (1 in 5 of all visitors).

In order to maintain this level of service, we took the decision to review the content and structure of the tours. We extended the duration of the tours to one hour and they now run at 20 minute intervals. They cover the powers of the Parliament, how the Parliament works, the role of key figures, the role of MSPs, the work of Committees and the legislative process in much more depth than previously. They also include much more information about what happens in each space in the building rather than simply focusing on the building itself.

The Parliament was invited to take part in Edinburgh’s Doors Open Day, which took place on September 24th 2005. Doors Open Day is part of a Europe-wide, free public celebration of architecture.

We had previously taken part in Doors Open Day when we were based in our interim accommodation. However, in 2004, because of migration and the date of the Official Opening we did not have the necessary resources available to take part.

It was agreed that taking part in 2005 event would be an excellent opportunity to engage the Scottish public with the new building, around the time of our first anniversary.

The day itself proved an enormous success with over 4,200 visitors attending and a great deal of positive feedback being received.

During March 2005, we held an Open House Programme which was attended by over 1000 members of the public. The programme involved 15 information and discussion workshops and 4 seminars, organised collaboratively with outside organisations. Both the workshops and seminars explored and explained different aspects of how the Parliament works and allowed plenty of space for debate and discussion. Nine MSPs and one MP were involved in Open House events and the seminars were webcast live.

The Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre provided a session illuminating the long tradition of the idea of ‘the commonweal’ and common political purpose in Scottish history.

The linking of the Parliament and politics with poetry, the oral storytelling tradition and banner-making connected us with new and different networks of people, many of whom had not engaged with the Parliament before. Sessions designed for children were very much appreciated and allowed families to enjoy a day in the Parliament together.

Over the past year, we have continued to produce public information material covering a wide range of topics. Publications issued over this period included:

The Parliament shop continues to be a popular draw for visitors to the Parliament, stocking a wide range of items including Parliament branded whisky, chocolates and postcards. In addition to this, our bestsellers include the range of books now in stock, including one on the construction of the Parliament building itself. During the course of this reporting year, there was an average spend of £4.50 per customer.

One of the unique services of our new building is our crèche which is open to visitors to the building and is a public service to encourage and enable people with children to visit the Parliament.

We are dedicated to making this service, the only public facility of its kind in Europe, work. However, over the initial couple of years, the crèche has required a significant level of subsidy to maintain the service. We agreed, therefore, that a crèche advisory group should be set up to consider all options for making the crèche a viable service.

This group, which consisted of MSPs, MSPs’ staff and Parliament officials was chaired by SPCB member Nora Radcliffe MSP, and looked at all options for improving the existing arrangements.

Following the work of the group and after further consideration, we agreed that the crèche should, in addition to its existing service, be opened to all pass holders on a drop in basis for up to four hours and that further work to promote the crèche should be undertaken. These measures have already provided a level of success with the increased promotion – which included promotional leaflets and colourful stickers – leading to an increase in the number of children using the crèche.

We continue to look at options for improving the crèche and a further update on this service will be included in next year’s report.

As we reported last year, it is the policy of the SPCB to provide sign language interpreters automatically for all debates and meetings dealing with issues relating to the deaf and hard of hearing. In addition to this, we ran a short pilot scheme to provide interpreters for First Minister’s Question Time (FMQT) and Question Time (QT).

Following completion of this pilot, we looked at the technological options available in relation to providing BSL interpreters for FMQT and QT

Whilst it was agreed that a routine interpreter service would not be provided for FMQT and QT at this point, we agreed that the service should still be available on request and access to parliamentary business through the current available services should be actively promoted. This was done through contacting relevant organisations and making them aware of this service.

The SPCB, along with other public bodies, is subject to the provisions of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. Under this Act, we are required to prepare and publish a race equality scheme and to review that scheme every three years. As the original scheme was prepared and published in 2002 the first review took place in November 2005. A revised Race Equality Scheme, incorporating a new action plan, was published on the Parliament’s website as part of the Equality Framework.

A workshop hosted by the European Parliament on 'Parliamentarians and Technology-Enabled Communications' took place on 23 and 24 May. Andrew Welsh MSP participated in the workshop and provided a 'position paper' and examples of our e-democracy experience for use by the other participants. Extremely positive feedback was received at the workshop on the Scottish Parliament's innovation and commitment to the use of new technologies and mechanisms for promoting e-democracy.

An important aspect as we settled into our new building was the introduction of artwork throughout the parliamentary campus. The collection consists of paintings, sculptures, furnishings and tapestries by Scottish and International artists. In order to ensure that this artwork was properly catalogued and cared for, we appointed an art curator who began work in April 2005.

In addition to looking after our existing collection, the curator is also responsible for taking the collection forward by looking at acquisitions and loans as well as the use of temporary displays and exhibitions. Over the past year, these have included:

To help the art curator take forward this work, an Art Advisory Group has been created which consists of MSPs and external members.

During the course of the past year, the section on the Scottish Parliament’s website about the Holyrood building was redeveloped and updated following the opening of the building. This section now includes much more information about the buildings and the project history. There are also sections about the design of each of the buildings, their artwork and sustainable features. There is also a catalogue of photos and images and a useful FAQ section on a whole range of subjects, from quotations to using electricity.

We had previously agreed that the Parliament should purchase a module of questions in the first MORI Social Attitudes Survey which was launched in January 2005. The questions covered the level of public awareness of the role and work of the Parliament, public attitudes towards the Parliament, and perceptions of the impact of the Parliament on people’s lives.

The survey covered a representative sample of the Scottish public. From a total sample of 1,858 addresses, 1,087 interviews took place with households and 1,003 adults within responding households. This gave a response rate of 65% for sampled households and 60% for randomly selected adults.

The survey findings, which we received in January 2005, were largely positive and showed that support for the Parliament remained strong. We were pleased by the results of this survey and continue to look at methods of tracking public attitude in relation to the Parliament.

Part of ensuring that the correct services are being provided to Members is ensuring that the correct support structure is in place. A current chart of the organisation’s structure can be found at page 33. The number of full-time equivalent staff in post at the end of March 2006 was 497.2; the staff turnover was 6.4%.

The Management Plan has evolved over recent years as we have sought to improve the format and information contained in it. The Plan is an essential tool for ensuring that the organisation has clear and measurable objectives. It also forms an integral part of the budgetary process so this year we brought forward the timetable for the publication of the Plan to align it as far as possible with the budgetary timetable.

As with previous years, the Management Plan described the high level corporate aims and objectives. Individual Directorate and Office plans contained far more detailed objectives and targets for all services within the Parliament.

A list of the strategic and annual priorities we agreed is detailed on the following pages.

The creation and implementation of our management plan is guided by our purpose, aim and values. These are:

The Parliament exists to determine, debate, decide and legislate on issues of importance to the people of Scotland. In doing so, it holds the Scottish Executive to account and is answerable to the people of Scotland.

Our purpose, as the staff organisation, is to support the Scottish Parliament in fulfilling its constitutional role as a representative and legislative body.

Impartiality We are fair and even-handed in dealing with members, the public and one another.

Professionalism We provide high-quality professional advice and support services.

Client Focus We are responsive to the needs of members, the public and one another.

Mutual Respect We treat everyone with respect and courtesy and take full account of equal opportunities issues at all times.

3.3.1 SPCB Equal Opportunities Report 2004 - The SPCB’s Equality Framework Action Plan states that each year the SPCB will publish an annual equal opportunities report. This report should enable the organisation to take stock of its achievements in this area and also to publicise the work that it has delivered to ensure its own compliance with equal opportunities legislation and to promote wider access to the Parliament over the past year. During the period covered by this Annual Report, the SPCB has approved both the 2004 and 2005 Equal Opportunities Reports and arranged for them to be published on the Parliament’s website. A copy of the Reports were also sent to the Convener of the Equal Opportunities Committee.

3.3.2 Staff Survey Report – A report on the findings of the staff satisfaction survey was presented to the SPCB in May. The purpose of the report was to help senior management better understand staff attitudes and concerns and inform actions to make improvements where appropriate. The SPCB agreed a number of actions aimed at addressing the issues raised by the survey including the establishment of a variety of improvement groups to develop specific ideas or suggestions as solutions. The Corporate Body was pleased to note, however, that the over-riding message coming out of the survey was that staff were proud to work for the Parliament and believed that the Corporate Body was a good employer. We continue to work to ensure that this remains the case.

3.3.3 Smoking Policy – In anticipation of the proposed legislation on smoking, the SPCB considered the potential impact for Holyrood and agreed in principle to close the smoking room available at the time and to provide alternative, external facilities. We also agreed that no additional facilities would be provided for visitors to the Parliament.

The timescale for this was phased to coincide with the new legislation becoming available in order to ensure that any facilities provided complied with the detailed requirements of the legislation. This preparatory work ensured a smooth transition when the legislation was subsequently passed and implemented.

We have prepared separate annual accounts for the 2005-06 financial year that comply with the accounting principles and disclosure requirements of the Government Financial Reporting Manual. The Auditor General for Scotland has audited these accounts and they were laid before the Parliament on 5 December. A summary of the expenditure is set out below.

We continue to live within our budgets. Our net revenue expenditure on staff, property and administration costs in 2005-06 was £63.0m, £1.6m less than the available budget.Part of that difference (£0.9m) represents lower funding requirements in the year for Commissioners and Ombudsman. The remaining £0.7m variation is explained by lower general administration costs for the SPCB than budget.

The value of the Holyrood building was adjusted by use of RICS Tender Price Indices in 2005-06 resulting in an uplift to the value of £5.8m which was recognised through the SPCB’s Operating Cost Statement.

Capital expenditure in 2005-06 of £0.8m related largely to IT software and hardware. This was less than the available budget reflecting that the budget provision was not fully required in 2005-06.

			*Actual* £m					*Budget* £m		*Variance* £m
		Revenue Expenditure (Note 1)	62.0			63.8			1.8

	Less: Income from shop/ broadcasting			(0.6)		(0.8)				(0.2)

Net Revenue Expenditure					61.4		63.0				1.6

Capital Expenditure					0.8		3.0				2.2

Total Revenue and Capital Expenditure in 2005-06, excluding capital charges					62.2		66.0				3.8

Capital Charges (Note 2)					17.6		31.0				13.4

Total Expenditure in 2005-06, including capital charges					79.8		97.0				17.2

Note 1: Revenue expenditure of £62.0m in 2005-06 included parliamentary staff salaries of £20.6m and MSP salaries of £9.7m. Members' costs, which enable MSPs to secure staff and accommodation to assist them in the discharge of their parliamentary duties, were £9.6m. A further £5.1m was expended on funding the salaries and running costs of the Commissioners and Ombudsman. The remaining £17.0m met the administration and property running costs of the Parliament.

Note 2: Capital charges were introduced by the Resource Accounting Manual to reflect the depreciation in value of assets and the cost of capital. The charge for 2005-06 was £23.4m adjusted for an uplift in the indexation value of the Holyrood building of £5.8m resulting in a net charge of £17.6m for 2005-06.

3.4.2 Financial Assistance for Registered Political Parties

Under the Financial Assistance for Registered Political Parties Order 1999, the registered political parties in the Parliament are entitled to monies to assist their Members to carry out their parliamentary duties. In the financial year ended 31 March 2006 we paid out a total of £337,705 under the Order.

In 2005, the Corporate Body approved extensions to the contracts for the two independent members of the Audit Advisory Board – Mr Niall Lothian and Mr Robert Bertram. Following the resignation of Robert Brown MSP from the SPCB and the review of our own portfolio arrangements, we confirmed John Scott MSP to join Duncan McNeil MSP as the second SPCB member on the AAB.

One of the many roles of the Corporate Body is to ensure that the budget is spent appropriately and that we achieve best value. One aspect of this has been to consider what costs we should be looking at recovering for events and to look at issues relating to the commercial use of the premises.

These are complex issues requiring legal as well as expert advice. We agreed that prices in the shop and on-line shop and the issue of guided tours should be reviewed as part of the Visitor Services and Events Review. We also agreed that commercial events in the Parliament should not be pursued at the current time but that officials should continue to look further at means of cost recovery.

This period saw our first full year in our new home at Holyrood. During this time, the building remained a huge draw for visitors as well as attracting a number of architectural awards. These included:

In addition to these, the Parliament Building won the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize Award.

On 2 March 2006, an oak strut came loose from the roof of the debating Chamber. The incident led to business being suspended for the remainder of that day.

Using the contingency plans referred to in section 1, we put in place arrangements for the use of The Hub in Edinburgh, as an immediate alternative to the Chamber.

Over the ensuing period, we worked closely with officials and engineers to examine what had happened, to consider what the problem was and to identify a safe and practical permanent solution.

We agreed that the repairs to the Chamber roof would take place in two stages. Stage 1 would be a temporary fix to enable business to get under way safely in the Chamber as quickly as possible.

Whilst this work was taking place, we reviewed the arrangements at the Hub and took the decision to relocate to Committee Room 2 within the Parliament. This meant that MSPs were closer to their offices and proved to be a more convenient location.

Following the completion of the stage 1 repairs, the Parliament moved back into the Chamber on 10 May 2006. The detail of the stage 2 permanent solution was subsequently agreed and this work took place during the summer recess.

The Corporate Body was pleased to be able to report that, despite the nature of the incident, thanks to the existing contingency plans and the effort of all involved, we lost only a few hours of parliamentary business.

The Strategic Review of Security took place throughout the year to review security provision across the buildings of the Scottish Parliament, identify those improvements or changes which appeared to be appropriate and to make recommendations. The Review was overseen by the Strategic Steering Group which included representatives from Lothian & Borders Police. The Group was also able to draw on, where appropriate, advice from the Security Service.

A final report was received from the Group in November and contained a number of detailed recommendations which are being taken forward.

During our first full year at Holyrood, the FM Helpdesk continued to be extremely busy in linking Members and staff with delivery of FM services. During this year, the Helpdesk answered approximately 6,000 calls per month.

Performance on this, and all FM services, was monitored throughout the year through the use of the ‘FM Dashboard’ which provides a wider perspective on FM’s performance in various areas. We are pleased to report that, over the year, the Helpdesk recorded a high level of performance.

Whilst regular checks on the quality of cleaning have been carried out since our arrival at Holyrood, customer surveys were introduced to ensure that the efforts being made by our contractor are acceptable to Members and all other personnel in the building complex.

Five building users are questioned each week as part of FM’s regular walk rounds. Six questions are asked which provide a score for both the standard of cleaning and the importance attached to it by the customer. This information is included in the ‘FM Dashboard’ on SPEIR.

In May 2005 we agreed that an Environmental Management System (EMS) for the Parliament should be developed; an important step in this process was to develop an Environmental Policy. The Policy, which was communicated to all building users as well as being made available for members of the public, is an opportunity for the Parliament to present its environmental vision and to make a clear statement that the Parliament wishes to be viewed as an exemplar organisation in this field.

The Policy captures the key issues for the Parliament and includes commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, minimise waste and conserve biodiversity. The Policy recognises the significant role of the Responsible Purchasing Policy in reducing the impact of products and services that are required by the Parliament but also that we shall work towards a reduction in consumption of resources to further reduce our environmental impact.

In October 2005, we were awarded the Cycle Friendly Employer's Award by Cycling Scotland. The Parliament was only one of 5 Scottish employers to receive the award. The award recognises organisation which encourage their staff to cycle. The Parliament was assessed on its infrastructure (cycling parking, changing facilities), promotion of cycling (information for employees, travel survey, number of senior managers who cycle) and the incentives available (travel allowance paid, bike loan). To ensure we retain the award we continue to provide good quality facilities for cycling and encourage building users to cycle.

Active monitoring, including planned inspections and audits is a valuable method for measuring the health and safety performance of an organisation.

Nominated persons from each office within the Parliament conduct a six monthly inspection of their workplace using a standard inspection form. The forms are collected by the Health and Safety section, and remedial action is arranged and followed up.

Common area inspections are conducted by small inspection teams which include the H&S Manager and stakeholders. This new programme uses standard inspection forms with a scoring system which will eventually provide trend data on H&S standards.

The number of unplanned fire evacuations of the campus per month remains acceptably low, with only two of these having taken place during "business hours" during the past year. Evacuations have therefore caused minimal disruption to the business of the Parliament.

The regular testing of fire alarm call points and the voice alarm system is an essential legal requirement. It is also the most evident of the many testing and maintenance operations carried out to ensure fire safety in the campus. These fire alarm call point tests continue to be carried out on a weekly basis.

Taking onboard feedback from the Members’ Survey as well as the output from a recent survey of IT Helpdesk Services, the BIT Office launched a dedicated telephone number for the IT Service Desk. The launch of this service means that direct contact can be made with IT staff without having to go through the FM Helpdesk. An additional benefit is that it provides easier access to the extended hours service that the BIT Helpdesk currently offers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays.

This service was successfully launched in December 2005, and during the period of report received on average 82 calls a day.

A project to offer wireless email devices to Members was rolled out at the beginning of this reporting period.

Blackberry wireless devices offer access to the Parliament messaging system through the mobile phone network, thus enabling real time delivery of email and calendar information for Members wherever there is a mobile phone signal.

The project attracted a large amount of interest from Members keen to better understand the benefits the device can bring. The project team received positive feedback on the initiative during information sessions held at the service desk in the Garden Foyer.

Over May and June we ran a series of IT training courses for MSP staff to support them in the use of the Parliament’s IT systems. Personnel and BIT have been working with our training provider to develop 3 training courses; Outlook, Office and Local Office Hardware. This ensured that the training was specifically tailored to meet their needs in the local office environment.

These sessions ran in Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness to ensure that as many MSP staff as possible had access to the training.

The courses were met with a positive response from delegates. Delegates noted that the training gave them a better understanding of the functions available through the packages and this helped to simplify daily jobs and save time.

If you have any questions about the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) in general or this Annual Report in particular, please contact the Secretariat as follows:

For a copy of this Report in a language other than English or in an alternative format (for example in Braille, large print or audio tape), please send your enquiry to: The SPCB Secretariat, The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, EH99 1SP. You can also contact us by fax (on 0131 348 5259) or by email (at judith.proudfoot@scottish.parliament.uk or
linda.smith@scottish.parliament.uk).