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In your briefing, you reported that there were low levels of PPE stocks in April 2020. How confident are you that NHS NSS has done enough work to ensure that we never return to such a precarious situation?

Auditor General, as you touched on in your previous answer, the Crofting Commission was required to agree to an expanded role in grazings in the national crofting development plan retrospectively, as it did not have an opportunity to view and agree the final plan prior to the Scottish Government’s announcement. What impact, if any, did that have on the Crofting Commission?

Hello again, Mr Boyle.

In my short time on the committee, lots of reports have come in, and a common theme has been the fact that many of the recommendations have not been actioned. We note that the Scottish Government did not fully implement the recommendations from previous pandemic preparedness exercises. Although nobody could have predicted the arrival of the pandemic, if we had actioned the points that emerged from those preparedness exercises, we might have been better prepared. Will you outline what the recommendations were and why you believe they were not implemented?

On page 13 of the report, you note that

“NHS NSS built, stocked and decommissioned the NHS Louisa Jordan field hospital”,

and that it is

“responsible for the ... redistribution of equipment to NHS boards across Scotland.”

How quickly is that taking place, given the pressure that many hospitals are under?

It is probably more of a statement for the record, rather than a question. Your report states that seven recommendations have been made in respect of financial sustainability and 47 in respect of governance and transparency. In your section 22 report, you state:

“I will continue to monitor the Commission’s performance, including how it takes forward its Implementation Plan, with a view to further public reporting in the future.”

Given the number of issues that were identified during the audit, the committee would welcome further public reporting in order to gain reassurance that the commission has addressed those issues. You said that they go back to 2016, with some similarities.

That is fine. I also noted that we are now making PPE in Scotland, which is excellent. However, the demand for PPE remains high, because it is needed in social care settings as well as hospitals. The second wave in winter 2020 led to more people in hospital and intensive care units. Now that winter 2021 is fast approaching, do you expect demand for PPE to continue or to grow even further? Are you happy with the stocks that you have?

Good morning, Mr Boyle. We have talked quite a lot about the blurring of lines and whether people knew what their roles and accountabilities were. In respect of the discussions on proposals for an expanded role in grazings, who expected that the chief executive, rather than the convener, would update board members as necessary?

Was any reason given as to why the convener did not continue to attend the discussions?

Good morning, Mr Boyle. You have already touched on the subject of my question. In paragraph 18, the briefing explains that

“The vaccine programme has ... been reliant on temporary staff and volunteers”,

including

“nurses, GPs, dentists, optometrists”

and so on, and that that has been expensive. Have you undertaken any work to cost that delivery model? What has been the cost to the public purse?

You said in the briefing that, as restrictions ease and NHS services recover, the availability of the temporary workforce will reduce. With that in mind, do you foresee any implications for the roll-out of Covid-19 booster vaccinations?