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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 26 November 2024
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Displaying 2151 contributions

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Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of National Records of Scotland”

Meeting date: 20 January 2022

Colin Beattie

The figure that I saw was that there was still a gap of £0.5 million. Does that gap remain?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”

Meeting date: 20 January 2022

Colin Beattie

You have touched on my final question, which is about the new UK Government funding programmes. In the past, you have said that there was a lack of clarity about responsibilities for the replacement funds and that you were in discussions on that. Has there been any progress? Do you have a better understanding of what your role will be in monitoring those funds?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”

Meeting date: 20 January 2022

Colin Beattie

The committee will be interested in those arrangements when the matter is resolved. Perhaps you could come back to us when you have some clarity so that we also understand what is happening.

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”

Meeting date: 20 January 2022

Colin Beattie

I would like to touch on one or two aspects of that, as well as European structural funds.

Obviously, there have been concerns in the past about the risk of fraud around social security payments in Scotland. However, a large part—more than £3 billion—of the expenditure is administered by the Department for Work and Pensions, under our agency arrangements with Scottish ministers. Therefore, as far as we—and probably Audit Scotland—are concerned, we are not able to establish what the levels of fraud and error might be. However, based on the levels of fraud and error that are reported by the DWP for the benefits that have been paid overall, Audit Scotland has estimated that overpayments in Scotland could amount to £65.4 million. That is a lot of money. How is it accounted for? Does it come back to us as a notional loss? How does that work?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of National Records of Scotland”

Meeting date: 20 January 2022

Colin Beattie

I can hear you perfectly.

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of National Records of Scotland”

Meeting date: 20 January 2022

Colin Beattie

Apparently the better value came at a cost of £14.4 million.

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of National Records of Scotland”

Meeting date: 20 January 2022

Colin Beattie

The convener asked for a copy of the options appraisal. Will you confirm that that will contain details of the additional costs that would have been incurred had the census gone ahead in 2021?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of National Records of Scotland”

Meeting date: 20 January 2022

Colin Beattie

Will you confirm also that the options appraisal contains details of the estimated additional expenses that were expected due to Covid mitigations if you had gone ahead with the census in March 2021?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”

Meeting date: 20 January 2022

Colin Beattie

I would certainly be interested in seeing the write-offs figure, and I am sure that the committee would be, too.

I will turn to a different subject. The European structural funds programme is in suspension. That is not a new thing; going back over the years, those European structural funds programmes have been put in suspension quite frequently. The reclaim payments are obviously still done through the European Commission. A risk has been identified that, once the suspension is lifted, the payments might not be able to be reclaimed in full. There is a fairly chunky write-off in 2021 of £16 million and a provision of £28.7 million in relation to future underrecovery of payments. I am a bit concerned about the fact that the programme is going to end in 2023 as a result of the UK leaving the EU. Can you summarise the issues that led to the European structural funds programme being suspended? What issues remain to be resolved in order for the suspension to be lifted?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts”

Meeting date: 20 January 2022

Colin Beattie

Given the timing and the fact that some funding has already been made available, it seems inappropriate that we have no idea about what the audit requirements will be in connection with the matter. Do you have any timescale?