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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 25 November 2024
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Displaying 2139 contributions

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Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Crofting Commission”

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Colin Beattie

The biggest problem that I see has been governance. Typically, what we have is a small organisation operating out there semi-autonomously that turns in on itself and becomes a little knitting circle that gets out of control. The question is how that can be dealt with, because the organisation is semi-autonomous. What should the Government do to bring it back in and ensure that, while the Crofting Commission or Bòrd na Gàidhlig, for example, retains the autonomy that it needs to carry out its job, the necessary support and overview are in place?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Crofting Commission”

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Colin Beattie

I ask Pat Kenny also to touch on whether the board members, even if they did not attend such training, would have been aware that training arrangements were in place and that they should be attending.

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Crofting Commission”

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Colin Beattie

Therefore, given the relationship that the sponsor team had with the senior management team, would it be correct to say that the sponsor team attended meetings of the senior management team and/or the board?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Crofting Commission”

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Colin Beattie

I will pick up on something that you said there. You very carefully said that the staff working for the Crofting Commission were under Scottish Government terms and conditions. Is that the same as saying that they are employees of the Scottish Government who are seconded to the Crofting Commission?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Crofting Commission”

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Colin Beattie

I have one final question on the back of what we have been talking about. You have already indicated that it is not unusual for there to be seconded staff from the Scottish Government in NDPBs. Although you may not have an answer to this, based on what we are talking about, is that mostly staff being employed on Scottish Government terms and conditions, or is it actually staff being seconded from the Scottish Government, or is it both?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of NHS National Services Scotland”; and “Personal protective equipment”

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Colin Beattie

Do we have a cost for that?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of NHS National Services Scotland”; and “Personal protective equipment”

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Colin Beattie

If there is any information on that, I would be interested in it, because obviously there is a cost to the public purse. Although PPE is essential and the Government is doing everything that it can to ensure that it is available, there is nevertheless a cost, and we should monitor that.

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of NHS National Services Scotland”; and “Personal protective equipment”

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Colin Beattie

So it is actually a back-up, rather than primary provision.

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of NHS National Services Scotland”; and “Personal protective equipment”

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Colin Beattie

So everything is now regularised.

My next question is slightly different. The report outlines that NHS NSS took a range of measures to support contact tracing. However, the report does not outline the impact of those measures on the programme overall. To what extent has the success or otherwise of those measures been evaluated?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2020/21 audit of the Crofting Commission”

Meeting date: 4 November 2021

Colin Beattie

I will take a slightly different angle. Your “Crofting Commission Report to the Audit and Finance Committee on the ‘Audit Dimensions and Best Value’ for the year ended 31 March 2021” states that the commissioners

“were apparently unaware of the fact that the Commission can employ staff in their own right, rather than through seconding staff from the Scottish Government.”

Is that correct?