Too many czars, says committee

Call for freeze on commissioner creation until others made more accountable

News, 15 September 2006

A committee of MSPs wants to see a hold on the creation of "czars" until concerns about accountability of the publicly-funded commissioners already in place are resolved.

Holyrood's Finance Committee wants ministers to stay their hand before putting in place five new regulators - including the proposed Scottish Legal Complaints Commission. The MSPs believe that the current five commissioners - covering public services, parliamentary standards, children and young people, public appointments and information - which between them cost £6 million a year, should be more accountable in their decisions on budget and location.

The five new ones would cost another £1.8m to set up and a further £2.9m a year to run. Ministers are proposing further commissioners to cover road works, human rights, legal enforcement, legal complaints and police complaints. The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission would be funded by the legal profession.

Among issues highlighted by the committee are the location of the Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion's office in St Andrews, not far from his Fife home, and the gap in accountability which appeared to allow the Children and Young People's Commissioner Kathleen Marshall to set her budget without approval or restriction.

Green MSP Mark Ballard, a member of the committee, agreed with there being limits on spending but said that commissioners had to be free to speak out without fear of repercussions.

The Scottish Executive was also criticised for claiming to have a moratorium on new bodies in place when no proposals for any new bodies had been delayed.