Scottish Policy Innovation Forum

Past and future meetings

 

Next meeting: Land and Property Taxation - 28 August

 The next SPIF seminar will consider the opportunities offered by the devolution to Scotland of land and property taxation.

This seminar will run from 1.45pm to 4.00pm on Tuesday 28 August 2012 at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, with registration and lunch from 1.00pm.

The Scottish Government has begun consultation on the use of new powers over land and property transactions granted by the Scotland Act 2012, with the aim of introducing legislation later this year  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/06/1301/2 .  Beyond this, more fundamental questions can be asked about the relative contribution of property to the tax base and how  domestic and non-domestic property taxes might be structured differently in the future.  The purpose of this event will be to open up the debate on these questions, to inform both short- and longer-term thinking about how they might be addressed in Scotland.

The event will be held as a panel-led discussion.  Confirmed panel members so far are: Andy Wightman, writer and researcher on land policy;  Professor Gwilym Pryce, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow; and Eugene Creighton,  head of Income and Capital Taxes in the Irish Revenue and member of a group set up by the Irish Government to consider the introduction and design of a recurrent property tax in Ireland, which reported in June this year.   Details of other contributors to follow.  The seminar will be chaired by Professor Jim Gallagher, Nuffield College, Oxford.

As always, attendance is free but places are limited. To reserve a place, please email Lucy. Please feel free to pass details on to any colleagues who may be interested.


Future meetings

SPIF is currently working on a series of events on public sector reform. Details of the next events in the series will appear here in due course.

Suggestions for seminar topics are always welcome - if you would like to make a suggestion, please email Lucy.

 

ScotHub website

SPIF has teamed up with the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, the Scottish Public Management Network and the ESRC to develop ScotHub, an online community which brings together organisations and individuals interested in public policy and management in Scotland.

Partnership with Scottish Affairs

The Forum has agreed a new partnership with the journal Scottish Affairs. In 2011, the journal launched a new section dedicated to 'Debates on Policy'. This section will include articles which draw on recent debates on public policy issues from SPIF meetings, continuing the debates and extending them to a wider audience. 

Past meetings

Copies of the papers and minutes from previous SPIF meetings are available for download.

  • The New English Localism
  • The Delivery of Personalised Care
  • Policing
  • Universities
  • Holding public bodies to account
  • Public finances in Scotland
  • Creative reductions
  • Poverty and employment
  • The future for public expenditure
  • Health inequalities
  • Scotland's constitutional future
  • Promoting dilogue
  • Central-local relations
  • Public policy and the economic downturn
  • Prisons and sentencing
  • Best value, performance and efficiency
  • Fiscal federalism
  • Local tax
  • Older people's issues
  • Land use and integrated planning
  • Innovation
  • Contestability and public services
  • Policy divergence
  • Transport
  • Social policy, employment and the active labour market
  • Media policy
  • Social inequality and deprivation
  • Economic development
  • Public sector reform
  • Demographic change
  • Law and order
  • Early years