Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have a final question on staffing. You have what is perhaps a record number of trainees. What is your retention rate for trainees?

Thank you for that and for those reassurances.

I would like your assurance on one more thing. Accounting judgments have had detailed consideration and scrutiny by auditors. I ask you, on behalf of Alexander Sloan, to confirm that you are content with the judgments that have been made by Audit Scotland and with their disclosure in the annual report and accounts, noting that a provision for additional costs in the previous year was overstated by £497,000.

I think that we have Daniel Johnson back on board.

Are you finished, Daniel?

Thank you.

Members have no more questions to ask, so does the chair of the board or the Auditor General want to add anything?

In that case, I thank the witnesses very much for attending the meeting.

We will have a short suspension.

That is not entirely clear in the accounts.

Can any of the additional costs be recovered from the organisation that is being audited, and is it expected that that figure—the 25 per cent, less whatever—will be written off against the Scottish Government’s budget support?

Last year, the commission was interested in understanding what Covid funds you received, how you deployed them and how effective it was. That is what it came down to.

That was not as successful as we had hoped it would be. While that technical problem is sorted out, we will move on to Mark Ruskell.

I will ask a couple of questions about the secondary legislation that stems from the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

We would normally ask you about how many instruments would be considered under the SSI protocol, but the committee welcomes the fact that that practice has been discontinued. Can you give an update on how many SI notifications the Parliament is likely to receive between now and the end of the year? You answered Mr Kerr about the number that you anticipate being laid. Do you have a figure?