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I think that we might have lost the connection with Donna.

The Auditor General draws attention to that in his briefing. Stakeholders raised concerns not only about extracting adult social care but about the wider scale of the reforms and the impact that they could have on local government.

The financial tension is significant. The other tension is that, during the structural reform process over the next three to five years, the urgent need in social care that the Auditor General identifies in his briefing might somehow be pushed out because of the process that will need to be undertaken.

Caroline Lamb, what assurance can you give the committee that there will be a clear timescale for developing a plan to address the urgent issues in the system? How will it be possible to implement longer-term reform, for example when councils allocate capital budgets or in relation to the reprovisioning of care services? Is there not a real risk that, because of the longer-term structural review, those issues will be pushed off the table even though, in many respects, they are urgent?

From a COSLA perspective, Nicola Dickie might want to reflect on the financial pressures that local government has experienced recently and what might happen during the interim period, when we might see a significant hollowing out of local government, as social care is moved under ministerial control.

Ms Fairweather, I saw you nodding in agreement there, so I assume that you are going to validate that position. From an audit, governance and accountability perspective, would it not make sense to have a single figure in the Government on whose door we could knock if we had concerns about the way that ICT projects were developing?

Good morning. One of the Scottish Government’s key measures and policies has been the introduction of new standards for medication-assisted treatment, which has become a bit of a buzz word. Your briefing rightly notes that the standards aim to give people access, choice and support through drug services. They are due to be embedded across the country by April 2022, which, as we know, is this week. Can you provide an update on where you believe that to be and how realistic the deadline is?

To go back to the recommendation, it was not necessarily about making someone accountable, but was about having an oversight function. Is there not a need for an oversight function with a clear line of accountability?

Reluctantly.

Was that quite a long way of saying that the Government has discounted that recommendation?

The final area that I want to ask about is financial controls and prioritisation of spend. Audit Scotland’s “Enabling digital government” report highlighted that there is no complete picture of the number and cost of digital projects across the public sector. In response to our predecessor committee in March 2021, the Scottish Government said that it was about to implement a new spending controls process. Could you bring us up to date on that and tell us where the Government’s thinking is in relation to IT prioritisation and control of spend?

Audit Scotland’s 2019 update questioned the appropriateness of a 21-day waiting time target for drug and alcohol treatment. In relation to drug deaths, you also raised serious concerns about people who do not attend treatment—those who, in effect, fall out of the system and have no contact whatever with treatment services. Are you aware of any work being undertaken by the Scottish Government to address those two critical issues?