Independent Scrutiny

I resigned my membership of SLARC the other week - an independent commitee  which for the last 8 years has been responsible for advising Scottish Ministers - on the salaries and expenses paid to local councillors in Scotland.

Now I think it's fair to say that what happened before SLARC was a a bit of 'dog's dinner' - with councils and councillors just making up the 'rules' as they went along - albeit with some friendly from COSLA (the self-styled voice of Scottish local government).

Because before SLARC came along, councillors received a whole bunch of what were called  'attendance allowances' - which rewarded councillors simply for attending meetings. 

So SLARC brought some sense and order to this chaos - but refused to support the stance of COSLA and most councils - that the job of a councillor was essentially a full-time one which demanded a minimum salary of £25,000 a year - and that other senior councillors should have their salaries linked to the salary of a Holyrood MSP.

No SLARC stood its ground - weighed up the evidence and recommended new salary scales, expense and pensions for councillors - in a very detailed report which, rather unusually, commanded all party support - across the board.

Yet the present Local Government Minister seems intent on returning to the bad old days of using his own judgement to resolve these issues - instead of doing business via an external non-governmental body - to which people were appointed for their independence of mind and thought. 

Which is why I decided it was time to resign - because there's no point in having a public watchdog if the politicians contrive to keep it in a kennel - or on a very short leash.
  
28 January 2013

Derek Mackay
Local Government and Planning Minister
Scottish Government
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

By e-mail

Dear Mr Mackay

Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC)

I would like to inform you that I am resigning my membership of the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) with immediate effect.

My reason for doing so is that under your stewardship, as Local Government and Planning Minister, SLARC has effectively been allowed to wither and die, despite its track record of success in creating an effective remuneration scheme for elected councillors in Scotland - a task which defeated at least two previous Government appointed advisory bodies, i.e. the Sewell and Kerley Commissions.

I have to say that I am very disappointed in your lack of support for SLARC and, in particular, for the committee’s robust and independent role on remuneration issues which, in my view, has been the key to SLARC's success with members being appointed only for their independence of mind and thought, and without any regard to politics or political affiliation.

For example, SLARC was instrumental in bringing the issue of 'top-up' payments to arm's length bodies in Glasgow City Council to the attention of the Scottish Government and this practice, widely regarded as a waste of public money and flagrant abuse of the remuneration scheme, was finally outlawed by the Finance Secretary, John Swinney, after a detailed investigation and report to Scottish Ministers by SLARC.

I think it is fair to say that without SLARC the abuse of the remuneration scheme in Glasgow, which ran to hundreds of thousands of pounds of course, would almost certainly have gone unnoticed and unchallenged.

One of SLARC's greatest strengths has been its practice of engaging in an ongoing dialogue with the stakeholders in Scottish local government, which included regular visits to local councils, to discuss the effectiveness of the councillors' remuneration scheme.

The great majority of SLARC'S visits to local councils were very positive, but the practice of gathering information and asking probing questions of councils played a crucial role in bringing the scandal of Glasgow's ALEO payments to public attention.

So, I find it difficult to understand your evident lack of support for an independent body dealing with remuneration issues which has, in recent times, meant that the members of the committee have not been replaced as they finish their terms of office, preventing valuable experience and expertise from being passed on and used, in future, to good effect. But the long, slow process of appointing new Members to SLARC has not even begun, as you know, which in my view tells its own story about your future intentions.

I know that you have stated in previous correspondence with SLARC that you are considering a different approach, albeit without explaining exactly what this new approach entails. In my view any departure from having an independent body deal with remuneration issues will be a retrograde step, especially if Government policy is changed without initiating a proper debate in the Scottish Parliament, which established SLARC in the first place.

Kind regards


Mark Irvine