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Are you getting enough support from Transport Scotland—I know that its representatives are sitting in the room with us—and is there anything else that it could do to help?

Do you think that it was appropriate for him to communicate at all, considering that he was the minister?

Would you reaffirm the guidance to Scottish Government officials or to ministers?

I have another question that concerns accountability. There was a verbal briefing from Transport Scotland. Our paper says:

“the former Minister had received a verbal briefing before he went on annual leave”.

We will ask more questions about record keeping later, but have you improved your procedures? Are all verbal briefings now recorded somewhere so that there is accountability and we know who said what to whom and when?

I might come back in later with some more questions on record keeping.

A majority of the committee also concluded that it was unclear why the former minister told us that he had no knowledge of the preferred bidder before going on annual leave when evidence from the former Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities stated that he was aware. Correspondence from Transport Scotland that was issued after the committee’s report was agreed appears to support the former cabinet secretary’s position. Is the Scottish Government any clearer about whether the former minister was aware of who the preferred bidder was before he went on annual leave?

Why was the correspondence received late? It took a freedom of information request before the committee saw it.

Is it fair to say that we have not learned lessons, then? If such a question is asked in Parliament, the response will normally be that there is a live case or a live procurement exercise so the Government cannot comment. From your answer, I guess that no instruction has been given to any minister that they cannot comment on anything like that.

You have talked about the new auditors and the bar that they expect you to reach. Have you managed to have any engagement with the auditors to find out where that bar will be?

A majority of the committee concluded that the former Minister for Transport and Islands showed poor judgment in responding to an MSP about alternatives to builders refund guarantees during a live procurement process. Are there any lessons for the Scottish Government to learn from that?