Seòmar agus comataidhean

Many of the participating bodies submit only payroll and creditors data sets for matching. Obviously, that limits the outcomes that can be achieved. Maybe you can indicate which public bodies are submitting only that sort of data. Does that mean that there is scope for some public bodies to submit more data sets? If so, what are they, and why are they not doing that?

Given the size of the public sector spend, if the payroll is 85 per cent of the budget, 15 per cent is still an awful lot of money, which we are missing out on being included in the NFI.

What other data sets could be included?

Councils.

It is a bit disappointing that, although we have been raising the matter as a committee for quite a few years now, we have never had a solid response from Audit Scotland on whether it needs more powers to be able to enforce and mandate public bodies to participate in this important exercise. You say that you have enough powers, but you have not actually analysed the market out there to determine gaps that you would need to fill, which might need more powers. You said that only half of the ALEOs are taking part, so it seems that there are a lot of gaps. Either you are not using your present powers to the level that you should be, or you do not have the powers to do that and, therefore, you need your hand strengthened.

So, 100 per cent of those provide that data.

Thanks, convener. The 2022 report on the NFI talked about a Cabinet Office consultation on extending legal powers in relation to the purposes for which data matching was used. You are already covered under section 97 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 for prevention and detection of crime other than fraud and to assist in the apprehension and prosecution of offenders. Is Audit Scotland satisfied that it has the necessary legislative powers to undertake the NFI exercise effectively?

This committee, over a number of years, has expressed concerns about the number of public bodies that are in receipt of large sums of money but which do not participate and have determined not to voluntarily participate. Can you give us a little bit more information about what you need? We have asked you directly in the past, every time a report has come up, about what you would need in the way of legislative powers to extend the NFI more effectively in Scotland. To be honest, the responses have been pretty ambivalent.

The fact is that those ALEOs are in receipt of substantial sums of public funds, but you have no powers to mandate their participation. Is that not a shortfall in your legislative powers?

You spoke about risk assessing the different data sets. Some of these bodies are submitting only payroll and creditors data sets. You mentioned council tax among other data sets that could be provided. Surely that area would carry a high risk due to the potential for fraud. Should that not be mandated as a data set to be included?

So, bodies are providing that data.