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Has the board recognised that these are, as the convener noted a minute or so ago, serious and major issues, and has it accepted that that is not the way to develop a budget?

It is important to probe further what happened. When you were doing the audit, you must surely have asked what on earth the board thought it was doing by proceeding in such a manner, which basically breaks all the guidance for organisations that is known to us and has been known to the committee for many years. What explanation was offered to you for that?

I have a question about the online portal that the Auditor General mentioned earlier. In the Public Audit Committee, we usually receive the opposite type of reports about information and communication technology initiatives, but the online portal for PPE ordering seems to have been a success. Do you have any information on who developed it? Is it still in place and working well?

That is great. Thank you.

If there was so little involvement by most of the principal players who should have been part of the process, who approved the budget? Do you know, Pat?

Thank you, convener, and good morning, Stephen. I want to talk about the commission’s budget. Your report makes clear some concerns relating to development of the budget. It notes that there was a lack of involvement by the board, or by stakeholders more widely, in setting the commission’s budget. It says:

“The draft budget had been developed without prior Board or Audit and Finance Committee involvement. There was also minimal involvement of the Senior Management Team beyond the Chief Executive and Head of Finance.”

Could you tell us a wee bit about what happened? First, who developed the budget? Could you take us through the process of whether it was, in fact, approved? Is that process still in place?

I would like to look at your recommendations. We have been at this point before when we have had a report from you and we have looked ahead to how a situation will be monitored, reviewed and so on. The report makes seven recommendations on the financial aspects and 47 on governance issues. Who will do the follow-up and verify that the work is going to be done? Will it be Audit Scotland or Deloitte, or a mixture of the two? How will the committee and the public be assured that the organisation has taken your recommendations on board and is getting things done?

When I think back to the start of the pandemic and the real struggle that we had to source PPE, I remember well a flight coming in to Prestwick loaded with PPE to help. NHS NSS and others moved heaven and earth to help supply our hospitals and care homes. Thank goodness and thank God that they did that by whatever means possible to protect the public. I want to put that on the record.

Auditor General, you said that our ability to produce PPE in Scotland went from zero to 88 per cent. How soon did we get to the point where we were sourcing and supplying PPE material from within Scotland? Was it weeks or months?

Do you know whether we are supplying PPE to the international healthcare market as a result of that development in Scotland, or do other countries have sufficient supplies locally?

You have said that the digital apps work really well and had to be developed at pace. Members of the public always ask me where the data is kept. Sometimes, I ask general practices questions about constituents and issues. Where is the data? Who keeps it and who makes it secure?