Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have a question about the home nations Covid-19 group that you have been part of and which has been sharing the experiences of public audit across these islands. What have been the main areas of learning from that group, and will it continue? Is it also benchmarking experiences outside the UK?

Will the member give way?

Do you want me to continue with my other questions, chair?

I will kind of build on the theme then move on to something else.

I think that Diane McGiffen mentioned the point about the lack of seamlessness between Audit Scotland’s IT and that of the bodies that you audit. To what extent will that continue to be a challenge? Will it get better? It could slow down the auditing process and mean more in-person visits if you cannot exchange online the data that you need, or whatever. Is that a bit of a headache or is it something that will resolve itself as we get into the new normal, which is to work more online?

In previous discussions with Audit Scotland, it talked about the importance of being able to get the taste and smell of an organisation—to use Audit Scotland’s words—when auditing it. Are you confident that you were able to get a taste and smell of Audit Scotland through doing the work remotely, or, in hindsight, do you think that you could have done with going in there and spending time on X or Y, or doing things slightly differently?

Thanks, convener. On that point, to what extent will the change to the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets’ remit—particularly the incorporation of climate change into its remit—make a difference to the way that our whole energy system is regulated and investment is incentivised?

Given what you have just said, Chris, with regard to your analysis, what are the next points that will come to the committee? Earlier, you mentioned the Green-SNP policy programme. Will you do an analysis of that? Will you provide the committee with analyses at other points in the next year, so that we can critically examine the work of Government?

Is that the right balance? A couple of weeks ago, we saw that the UK hydrogen strategy, which mirrors the Scottish Government strategy in many ways, looks at putting 20 per cent hydrogen and 80 per cent natural gas into the gas grid. Are the right policies in place at the moment? Will that build in a dependence? Does that meet your tests?

Thank you—I am a big fan of logic and reason.

I move on to hydrogen. Lord Deben perhaps hinted a bit at the different pathways for development of hydrogen. The CCC said previously that blue hydrogen is

“a necessity not an option”,

but there are concerns that, if we invest too heavily in solutions such as putting blue hydrogen into the domestic heating grid, we could extend the use of fossil fuel reserves and our dependency on them. It is a difficult balance to strike. What are your thoughts on blue hydrogen now? Are we now building in dependency and locking in emissions or is the use of blue hydrogen an effective stepping stone towards green hydrogen and completely decarbonised use of the technology in domestic buildings?