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That is fine. It sounds like something that may have potential for growth in providing more inclusive services or access to more public services, as part of a wider strategy, if the infrastructure is already there.

The second half of my question—I am sorry to be cheeky, convener—is on the social tariff issue, which I am still trying to get my head around. Around 5 or 8 per cent—I was not sure which—of those who are eligible to take up a social tariff are doing so.

I had a quick look, and those tariffs range from about £12 to £25 per month, depending on what sort of speeds you want, from 15Mbps up to about 150Mbps. It is not bad; it gives you basic access. Is there a place for Government subsidy in that area, even at a basic level? For example, 100,000 households connected at basic speeds at £12 a month would cost the Government £14 million per year, but it would bring 100,000 households straight into the digital sphere. Is that the sort of intervention that you think would be helpful and which we should be probing the Government about?

Is that not part of the problem, Auditor General? The language that you use in the report and which you have repeated in your opening statement is relatively harsh in its analysis. You say that

“leadership ... has weakened”,

that

“momentum has ... slowed”

and that there is a lack of an action plan and a lack of lines of responsibility. These are common themes that we on the committee hear arising from a wide range of public services and from Government management and oversight of them. Do those things come as a surprise to you? Is there a feeling that it is perhaps not that the Government has taken its eye off the ball, due to pressures on public finances, but that its eye was never on the ball in the first place? I am trying to get a feel for whether the direction of travel is towards a worsening situation or whether the strategy was never there in the first place.

That is great news. I was really taken aback by the statistic that one in six Scots lack foundation-level digital skills—not advanced digital skills, but basic digital skills. How does that compare with other parts of Europe and the United Kingdom? Are we faring well, or is that the world average at the moment?

I might come back in with other questions later.

I have a few supplementary questions resulting from that conversation before I move into my main line of questioning.

I should say good morning. I know that it is a Monday morning, but we will get through this together.

Following on from the staffing issue, I want to look at staffing costs and pay rises, in particular. I have just spotted year-on-year changes on page 48 of your 2023-24 annual report and accounts, under your fair pay disclosure arrangements. This is backed up by looking at the table. It seems to me that the average year-on-year increase for employees is around 5 per cent—I presume that that is a general inflationary measure that you have introduced—but the increase is much higher for the higher earners in the organisation. In particular, the highest-paid individual received an 8 per cent increase. Is there any particular reason for that?

That is understood. Obviously, there are some very high-profile areas of the public sector in which requests have been made for double-digit increases in pay and staff. I am not expressing a view on that; I am simply stating a fact. However, that leads to the question how much money you will have to budget for and to ask for. There seem to be a lot of known unknowns in that, but it is a well-established process. Is that a fair description?

That is helpful—thank you.

I am looking at the audit performance in terms of audits completed on time on a sectoral basis—we have touched on that, and you gave us an indication of some of the reasons behind it—and I note that there has been quite a stark drop over the past couple of years. If we look back to 2018-19, nearly every major sector was delivering audits on time. Looking at the chart, I guess that the figures were north of 95 per cent across local government, the NHS, central Government and the FE sector. In 2022-23, however, the numbers dropped considerably, with some areas performing better than others. The NHS was sitting at 74 per cent, at the high end of the spectrum, while the figure for local government was as low as 29 per cent. That is a stark difference.

Will you expand on what has happened over the past couple of years? Obviously, the pandemic is the number 1 factor and the buzzword there, but there was a drop in 2019-20, which was before the pandemic really hit. The numbers were already starting to fall in relation to the targets. I give you an opportunity to expand on that a little bit.

Thank you.

That is fine. You do not need to go into too much detail on that today. It is really just to double-check that public money is being spent wisely.

One thing that you pick up on in your annual report and something that you admit is that the ratio of people in the organisation who have declared that they have a disability seems to be relatively low in comparison with other organisations or indeed the national average. Can you tell me what you are doing to improve that?

I am sure that there are lots of disabled people who are very well educated in the technical space who might disagree with that point, but I understand the gist of what you are saying.