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We have talked a lot about the contract and we can argue about its different aspects. However, contracts are only really there for when things go wrong, so that there is something to refer to. In this situation—again, I refer to the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee report—it is alleged that the company did not act in the proper way in order to receive the correct payments.

As I say, contracts are there for when things go wrong, but, generally speaking, we do not expect things to go wrong. Generally speaking, delivery is made, there is good will and parties work together, but that has not taken place. There are a lot of questions around that, and the questions will get bigger and bigger. If you carry out an investigation to ensure that the contractor’s apparent failures are highlighted or explained—who knows, they might be explainable—that is where the big questions are.

Just—

That is in line with your letter to the committee. I assume that you would have reviewed the report as part of your audit process. Is that correct?

Leadership in the public sector is a concern that has been raised depressingly often. In this case, I draw the witnesses’ attention to paragraph 20 of the Auditor General’s briefing, which says:

“The health and social care sector needs stable and collaborative leadership to address the … challenges”.

There is also reference to the local government overview of 2020, which

“emphasised the critical need for effective leadership”,

which was absent. Also, the “NHS in Scotland 2020” report

“highlighted the continuing lack of stable NHS senior leadership, with high turnover and short-term posts.”

Those are serious issues. Leadership is vital but we often find that it is absent. We are considering the challenges that face social care, which seems to face exactly the same issues with leadership. Perhaps Caroline Lamb might comment on that and how it is being tackled.

But the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee’s conclusions have serious implications and surely need to be addressed. If there has been such contractor failure, it has contributed massively to the costs and delays in the project.

Very briefly, because I am conscious of time, paragraph 21 of the briefing refers to the issues between partner organisations and the model of governance being overcomplicated. That is not new; those integration authorities have been in place for some time. Donna Bell said that we have been learning from other integration initiatives by the police and so on. Again, I say that there seems to be very little evidence of that coming through in the Auditor General’s briefing as at January 2022, when the briefing was produced. I am hearing a lot of good words, but I do not see the evidence, although I hope that we will see it in the future. Does anyone want to say anything further on the integration authorities?

The ferries issues first came about as a result of the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee’s report of 9 December 2020, in which it asked you to carry out your investigation. I presume that that is what triggered your investigation at that time. Is that correct?

The committee has heard on a number of occasions that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work for what we are trying to achieve in our town centres; the key to success is working effectively with the local community and businesses to establish regeneration. We have not seen good examples of where that has happened not just on a project basis—there are plenty of projects around that have been very successful—but on a planned basis, where the town centre has been successfully regenerated, bringing together all the different elements of local communities and so on. Danny, can you give me an example of where that has happened?

Without commenting on the examples that have been given, it is important to differentiate between situations in which there have been individual projects that have been tremendously successful and those in which there has been a comprehensive town centre plan involving the whole community and so on that has been brought to fruition to make that step change and difference. Phil Prentice, could you comment on that?

I am sure that that would be useful.