Neil McGarvey

Managing the Risks of Public-Private Partnerships in Scottish Local Government

The involvement of the private sector in the financing and provision of public services has been placed at the core of the Labour governments second-term public sector reform agenda. PFI/PPP is a key policy instrument that is being used to transform public services. This article reviews the debates surrounding PFI/PPP before examining the implementation of the policy in Scottish local government. A key element of PFI/PPP is risk transfer. The research presented here suggests that scope exists for poor risk management decisions in Scottish local authorities. The degree of risk management involvement in the process to date is variable, and where it does exist its extent is frequently limited in scope. Local councils in Scotland appear ill-prepared to manage the risk transfer process inherent in PFI/PPP. Faced with commercial operators with substantial advantage over them in the arena of risk transfer negotiation, this increases the likelihood of PFI/PPP initiatives which offer poor value for money for Scottish local government.

Transparency of Risk and Reward in U.K. Public-Private Partnerships

PublicPrivate Partnerships (PPPs) are an increasingly common mechanism for the renewal of public sector infrastructure, although in the United Kingdom, these have been criticized as representing poor value for money. An inherent assumption of much of this criticism is that a corollary of detriment for the public sector is benefit for the private sector. This paper highlights the difficulty of objectively verifying the many criticisms and assumptions regarding risk and reward associated with PPPs. Public and private sector disclosure policies and systems are analyzed and we conclude that neither sector practices openness and transparency. This results in a democratic accountability deficit in the public sector and a lack of meaningful data being made available to stakeholders in private companies.

Accountability in Public Administration: A Multi-Perspective Framework of Analysis

This article adopts a relativist philosophical stance reviewing alternative conceptualisations of ‘accountability in public administration’. It evaluates traditional, democratic, professional, managerialist, governance, regulatory and rational choice perspectives of accountability. By analysing each perspective we can see what each reveals (as well as neglects). By asking different questions and providing different answers each perspective has heuristic qualities that allow us to analyse in sufficient depth what ‘accountability in public administration’ amounts to. This analysis suggests that while accountability may be improving within and between public organisations (through managerial and regulatory codes) there remain question marks as regards accountability to the wider public.

New Scottish politics, new texts required

Books reviewed in this article: D. Denver, J. Mitchell, C. Pattie, and H. Bochel, Scotland Decides: The Devolution Issue and the Scottish Referendum G. Hassan, and C. Warhurst, (eds) A Different Future: A Modernisers Guide to Scotland G. Hassan, and C. Warhurst, (eds) The New Scottish Politics: TheFirst Year of the Scottish Parliament P. Lynch, Scottish Government and Politics: An Introduction J. McFadden, and M. Lazarowicz, The Scottish Parliament: An Introduction B. Tylor, The Scottish Parliament A. Wright, (ed.) Scotland: The Challenge of Devolution

The new accountability? devolution and expenditure politics in Scotland

Devolution is seen to be a means for enhancing democratic control and accountability in the British political system (Scottish Office, 1997). Proponents of such change have presented it as offering the prospect of a more consensual, transparent and inclusive form of governance, in effect a ‘new politics’, with less executive dominance than at Westminster. This would be delivered in part by proportional representation, by strengthening the role of the legislature, and by adopting a more consultative approach to decision-making (Scottish Constitutional Convention, 1995). This article focuses on expenditure politics in the budget and audit processes of the Scottish Parliament.

Developing best value in Scotland: Concepts and contradictions

Labours commitment to the Best Value approach in policy terms has still permitted significant differences of practice in Scotland. The argument is made here that Best Value incorporates elements of the rationales behind both CCT and performance management. It is not therefore a radical break from past practice ‐ more of an incremental change which builds on initiatives of recent years. The article concludes that there are unresolved tensions and contradictions which need to be addressed if the policy is to have a significant and lasting impact on the day‐to‐day practices of Scottish local councils.

Expectations, assumptions and realities : Scottish Local Government post-devolution

This article reviews developments in Scottish local government post-devolution. In doing so it outlines some expectations, assumptions and realities about local government in Scotland. Three assumptions are examined and rejected: 1999 was ‘Year Zero’ for Scottish local government; central–local relations are characterised by a cohesive centre versus a cohesive locality; central–local relations in Scotland are nothing more than a fuzzy microcosm of central–local relations in England. The article argues that Scotland increasingly offers a different ‘story’ of central–local government relations with pre-existing differences accentuating in the context of minority government, different processes of governance and attitudes to the welfare state.

Regulating public bodies: the case of direct service organisations in British local government

In recent years regulatory mechanisms and arrangements for public service organisations have become increasingly complex. In this paper we develop a theoretical framework that emphasises the potential importance of the following regulatory problems: regulatee resistance, ritualistic compliance, regulatory capture, performance ambiguity, and absence of performance data. This framework is applied to arrangements for the regulation of direct labour and direct service organisations in Scotland and Wales prior to the ‘Best Value’ regime. The results support the practical relevance of the analytical framework. Furthermore, whereas conventional perspectives suggest that the source of regulatory problems is the behaviour of regulatees, our evidence shows that the behaviour of regulators can also lead to regulatory failure; for example, through ritualistic compliance with procedures. The evidence also reveals a previously unidentified problem concerning a ‘fear of regulation’ on the part of regulators.

Identities and Politics in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum: The Polish and Pakistani Experience

The Scottish independence referendum on 18 September 2014 was couched around the implicit assumption that it was a homogenous group of ‘Scots’ voting on Scotland’s future. However, various groups with varying identification with Scotland were eligible to vote in the referendum. Scotland has five significant ‘immigrant’ groups that make up, collectively, 11.8% of Scotland’s population. They are growing, between 2001 and 2011 Scotland’s population, mainly due to immigration, grew by 5 per cent – the fastest rate of growth for 100 years. The Scottish Government projects that the Scottish population will rise by another 10% to 5.76 million by 2035.1 In terms of political participation many immigrants are usually thought of as largely invisible, assumed to be less prone to political activism and economically marginalized. Implicit is perhaps the notion of a kind of devoir de reserve (duty not to interfere) in host country political processes, partly due to an assumption of temporary rather than permanent migration. Though this psychology has a temporal dimension – whilst relatively new migrants may be ill inclined to participate in their new host country’s political processes, the second generation are more likely to be inclined towards engagement. While there is a body of sociological literature on minority communities’ identification with Scottishness and Britishness, there is little research about their political attitudes and views about the constitutional question.2 Race,

4. European, not British? Scottish Nationalism and the EU Referendum

The EU Referendum campaign, result and aftermath have ensured that Scotland’s constitutional status both within the United Kingdom and the European Union remains in sharp focus. Eyes are now firmly fixed on the Scottish government, as they initiate plans to hold a second vote on Scottish independence. Whether or not the people of Scotland are ready for another referendum, having already voted on independence in 2014 and on membership of the European Union earlier this year, remains to be seen.