A Scottish parliament committee says it has significant concerns over the lack of detailed costs being put forward by the Scottish government in its plans to set up a national care service.

Holyrood's Finance and Public Administration Committee was tasked with scrutinising the financial memorandum accompanying the National Care Service Bill – legislation to put the framework in place for what the Scottish government has called the most ambitious reform in public services since the creation of the NHS.

In its report following a series of evidence sessions, the committee says the government still has time to provide "much needed clarity" by bringing forward fully costed plans ahead of the legislation being debated and voted on by the full parliament for the first time in a 'Stage 1 debate' in March.

Scotland's Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, Kevin Stewart MSP, defended the cost estimates when he appeared before the committee on 8 November, and refused to pause the legal process despite members of the committee expressing concerns about the lack of clear costings behind the changes.

A week earlier, the independent national public sector watchdog, Audit Scotland, said it was surprising that decisions had been taken to proceed without a full understanding of the full range of costs and benefits.

The Chief Executive of NHS Borders, who also currently chairs meetings of the NHS Scotland chief executives’ group, told the committee that the impact of the proposals, with the potential need to reorganise health services and NHS staff, was not being taken into account. Ralf Roberts, in common with other witnesses to Holyrood committees scrutinising the NCS Bill, said the ability of frontline health and care staff to find time to engage with the whole consultation and parliamentary processes was severely limited by their current workloads.

Publishing the committee’s report, Finance and Public Administration Committee Convener Kenneth Gibson MSP said:

"The Finance Committee has significant concerns over the costings in the Financial Memorandum (FM) to this Bill. The FM in its present form does not provide an overall estimate of the cost of creating a National Care Service.

“A large number of decisions are yet to be made, and no estimate of costings has been provided for VAT liability, transfer of assets and staff, and the creation of a nation-wide digital health and social care record. All of which has the potential to result in significant costs.”

The committee’s report says the Scottish government has adopted the wrong approach by creating a framework Bill, with much of the detail still to be worked out. Mr Gibson added:

“The committee appreciates the Scottish government’s intention to co-design the service with those most closely affected. That work could, however, have been undertaken prior to the introduction of primary legislation.

“Major Bills should not be implemented via secondary legislation, or through business cases, which cannot be subject to the same in-depth, formal scrutiny as Financial Memorandums to bills.

“The significant gaps highlighted throughout our report have frustrated the parliamentary scrutiny process.

“We are therefore calling for a revised Financial Memorandum, with detailed costings, at least two weeks before Parliament considers the Bill at Stage 1.”

Read recent stories on the NCS: Unions: Social care workers need action now; Calls to pause national care service legislation; Legal experts: NCS Bill too vague on human rights.

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