Speeches by Hinds.

“From July, in Edinburgh, Glasgow?”

“We know about Edinburgh, Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire, Aberdeen, Sterling, and there are some other consultations still outstanding.”

“If I am an events organiser, do I have one person in your organisation who I go through and then that person does all the—”

“Whether it is large events or smaller events, one theme that we have heard in this inquiry is the difficulty, the frustration, or the admin cost of having to deal with multiple branches of the public sector, local authorities, policing, transport, and so on. It was suggested that you have overcome that with the proverb…”

“We know about Edinburgh, Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire, Aberdeen, Sterling, and there are some other consultations still outstanding.”

“Totally understanding and respecting that this is not your specialist area, I think VisitScotland leads the visitor levy expert group, is that right?”

“Particularly relevant to your part of the thing, first of all is the revenue ringfenced? You are in the business of bringing great events to Scotland that generate economic activity and joy, but they require marketing and they require organisation, they require facilities and so on. Do you have a guarantee that the rev…”

“I am not quite done, but I totally understand that. I think that the Edinburgh rate is 5%, Glasgow will be 5%, Stirling 3% and Aberdeen 7%. Without having to know the details of how all that works, let’s assume that gets passed on entirely in rate. It may not be 100%, but let’s assume it is. Would you expect that to ha…”

“From July, in Edinburgh, Glasgow?”

“Can I ask about the visitor levy? This is quite a big change coming to the Scottish travel and tourism sector this year, right?”

“Beyond VisitScotland, is there anything else in the set-up that simplifies that process of all these different public sector bodies that I need to work with?”

“I will, but I will start by telling my hon. Friend about the lack of quality in some previous apprenticeships. I draw the House’s attention to the 2012 National Audit Office report on adult apprenticeships. I have time for only a couple of very short excerpts. The number of apprenticeships had increased dramatically in…”

“It is an honour to be the final Back-Bench speaker in this debate. I do not feel like I am at the back of the queue; I am just not at the front. It is good to see some Liberal Democrats with us today. We know that student finance is a particularly important subject for debate in the Liberal Democrat party. In fairness,…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, but we need quality apprenticeships. That is why I regret the fact that the independent Institute for Apprenticeships is being dissolved to be replaced by Skills England, which is not independent, does not have guaranteed business involvement in setting standard…”

“It is not today’s subject.”

“That is a failing.”

“In most sectors of business there are metrics that are commonly used. I worked in the travel trade and there are standard ways that you measure hotel occupancy, revenue per passenger kilometre on a plane, and this, that and the other. Are there common bits of data that you might expect Government Departments, the Arts …”

“A massive organisation.”

“A lot of us are probably struck by your 48 directors stat. At some point we will have the opportunity to go to the Arts Council directly and put some challenging questions to some of this stuff. Is it one of your recommendations that there just should not be anything like that number of senior management positions in t…”

“Perhaps that is what happens when you have 48 directors. They all need some reading material. A spreadsheet is better than a—”