Speeches by Kane.

“It is worth seeking a little bit of further clarity. We mentioned the pandemic. There are wonderful things that we did to adapt to the pandemic, but I am never sure today, in 2025, how much we are capturing where we are today rather than thinking back to those days five years ago where innovation was kicking in. Do you…”

“I want to ask a quick question on AI. Paul, you mentioned that we are still digitising services. We are still, in effect, catching up with, in effect, the 21st century when it has moved on rapidly in the last 12 months. We are still digitising services from an analog world. This new thing called artificial intelligence…”

“Can I talk about impact, please? What impact will this strategy achieve for organisations? What will it achieve for staff and what will it achieve for users of services?”

“What is your instinct about what is happening at the moment? I am curious about this. If you are in Edinburgh, Newcastle or wherever, is it your instinct that you have a lot of people who are incredibly frustrated in their jobs, because they cannot get on and they are stuck there? Would you surmise that those who have …”

“There is something about moving between organisations. Why is that not happening at the moment? If I am living in Edinburgh or Stirling and there are multiple different organisations, there is nothing to stop me moving between them at the moment. Therefore, I would surmise that either I am not recognising that my skill…”

“When we talk about military recruiting, the military are aware that they have to figure out a way to let people leave and come back. Do you think, as the civil service, that you are doing that well anyway? Will this strategy help you keep people for longer? Will you also have that ability to let them leave and come bac…”

“Are you losing them out of the profession? Do you think they are going sideways to—”

“I am very much enjoying this because, from a Scottish perspective, it is intriguing to see that a lot of the problems are the same with local government. Perhaps I would add to that by saying it often feels like it is local government standing outside the window looking in, pressed up against the window, in a sort of D…”

“If I can move us on, I am looking at page 8 of the Report and the 20 lessons and insights to improve operational delivery. I am looking at the last one, which is, “Creating a working environment that encourages openness and innovation and challenges current thinking. You need leaders who ask what barriers and problems …”

“I appreciate that what was done in the pandemic was unique. I hope we never ever have to have that unique approach again, where there is an external factor of that magnitude that makes us more innovative. Do you think that we have returned to the previous habits, prior to the pandemic, where there were barriers to inno…”

“Can I pick up on your first answer on the reason for complaints being so high? You said it was because you have high staff turnover and you are struggling to keep people, but in your second answer you said you have the highest level of employment that you have ever had and you are getting people in. There is a disconne…”

“Just to finish that concern off—going right back to what we talked about with trade union recognition at the beginning—if you have fewer people being asked to do more, one thing that will happen is that people can be overworked and stressed, and working conditions can go down. It is even more important that we get an u…”

“In specific relation to staffing, we are in a digital transition, but we have not transitioned to the digital world yet, so we can still rely on staff to provide a certain service level in a way that we hope we can rely on technology for in the future. The one thing I would imagine you can do is put in what you think i…”

“What did you do to test Capita’s assumption that it could do this with fewer people, based on automation and technology?”

“I was going to ask a question about staffing. In paragraph 3.10 of the NAO Report it says: “The contract with MyCSP does not specify a minimum staffing level, and MyCSP has struggled to maintain sufficient staffing levels since Cabinet Office’s decision to award the…contract to Capita. Cabinet Office’s contract with Ca…”

“If there is somebody saying, “We haven’t yet delivered this app,” or this whatever, “because we think there's an AI thing just around the corner,” that could be someone who is completely on top of their game who is saying, quite reasonably, “Give me another eight weeks; you are going to get something better.” But it co…”

“I want to ask about staffing. However, can I just quickly go back and close off something on digital from before? Given the pace of change, Cat, and given everything that is going on, how confident are you that you have the right skills to oversee this contract, and contracts in general, and to tell the difference betw…”

“That is a wait-and-see question. At some point, you will have to say, “We cannot wait any longer. We have to go.” Can we park technology for a minute? I assume that you have a certain amount of time to see what happens with technology, but then you will just have to act. Otherwise, you will not be ready ahead of the en…”

“It is a timescale thing for us as well. When can we expect to see some activity around this? Is it in five years’ time? One year? At what point do you start to put action to the concept of “We need to do something here” so that this Committee can start to see things eight years out, rather than two years out when it is…”

“Just to help me understand this, I have one last question on the size of the market. If you are going from provider A and then 10 years later to provider B, and you keep going on a merry-go-round of providers, can you talk to me about the size of the market itself? If it is too small, given that you have 10 years of a …”