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Who took the decision to make the announcement in August?

I will keep this question short. Would an announcement such as that normally have come through the cabinet secretary, a minister or Transport Scotland? Who would normally give you the proposal? Would it be a special adviser?

CMAL had strong objections to the high-profile announcement of the preferred bidder. Given that the contract negotiations were still under way, did you not think that it was inappropriate for you to make the announcement?

Were you aware that the CMAL board wanted to stop the procurement process?

Were you aware at any point that the board wanted to stop the process?

How much knowledge did you have before you made the announcement? Did that announcement make it harder for you to go in and stop the contract? It would seem that it was CMAL’s preference to stop the tendering process, but you still went ahead with the contract.

Okay. Thank you.

You pre-empted my next question, which was going to be on publishing further work on the impact of the expansion of funded early learning and childcare and the timetable for that. Are you expecting to publish that next year?

Good morning. Recommendation 13 states that the

“Public Bodies Unit should ensure that coaching and/or mentoring support is offered to the chief executive of every public body, particularly newly-appointed chief executives and those facing challenging situations or intense scrutiny.”

In its response, the Scottish Government indicates that it will increase the support that is provided to chief executives as accountable officers, including by developing a coaching and mentoring system. Will you provide an update on the progress of that work?

The final recommendation—recommendation 14—states:

“Identify two experienced team leaders with a good understanding of public body governance issues to take up post in the Public Bodies Unit ... and review what additional staffing would be required to create a Public Bodies Hub to coordinate improvement work on sponsorship and Ministerial appointments and provide a first point of contact to sponsor teams on all public body issues.”

In its response, the Scottish Government said that it recognised the need to resource the delivery of the recommendations from the review and that it would decide how best to address that recommendation, given the current challenging fiscal environment.

What progress has been made on appointing two experienced team leaders to the public bodies unit to provide additional capacity for development, support and challenge, and on the review of the level of additional staffing that would be required for the creation of a public bodies hub?