Skip to main content
Loading…

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.  

Criathragan Hide all filters

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 8 July 2025
Select which types of business to include


Select level of detail in results

Displaying 1619 contributions

|

Meeting of the Commission

Audit Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31 March 2025 and Auditor’s Report on the Accounts

Meeting date: 23 June 2025

Jamie Greene

When this budget was approved, was that change not already known about? The budget would have been approved, based on that information at the time, yet there is still this huge variance.

Meeting of the Commission

Audit Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31 March 2025 and Auditor’s Report on the Accounts

Meeting date: 23 June 2025

Jamie Greene

There was a 20 per cent jump in what was budgeted versus what was spent on external organisations. That is not within the margin of small error; it is a huge variance.

One aspect missing from the table, on which perhaps other members will comment, concerns the IT issues that we have discussed previously. We have had long conversations about your big plans for upgrades and investments, but I struggled to find those reflected in the budget spend for last year. Is that because you have not spent the money, but the work is coming down the line and we will be hit with a big ask next year, or is that spend in there? I heard what you said about laptops and cybersecurity issues. By the way, I am all for spending money on cybersecurity—and I am sure that the laptops are lovely—but given what we talked about at previous meetings I was expecting to see lines on major software or infrastructure IT upgrades that would propel you into the future.

Meeting of the Commission

“Quality of public audit in Scotland: Annual report 2024/25”

Meeting date: 23 June 2025

Jamie Greene

Where would I find information on internal Audit Scotland staff? What level of surveying has been done there? How useful or reliable is the data on their happiness or contentedness with what they are given to allow them to do their jobs?

Meeting of the Commission

“Quality of public audit in Scotland: Annual report 2024/25”

Meeting date: 23 June 2025

Jamie Greene

There is a debate as to why not. It is a competitive working environment and other companies may offer different working practices that are more favourable to people, so you have to stay competitive, I guess.

I am happy to leave it there. I may have other questions on the audit quality later.

Meeting of the Commission

“Quality of public audit in Scotland: Annual report 2024/25”

Meeting date: 23 June 2025

Jamie Greene

If I recall correctly, previous reports on the quality of public audit provided more information on audit inputs from your auditors, including internal auditors and external audit partners. Reports also included useful information from auditors who were surveyed for their opinions on, for example, whether they felt that they were able to carry out a high-quality audit, whether they had all the resources that were necessary to allow them to do their job and whether they were given the appropriate time, training and development to do so. It was quite helpful information, but it has not been included in this year’s report. Why not?

Meeting of the Commission

Audit Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31 March 2025 and Auditor’s Report on the Accounts

Meeting date: 23 June 2025

Jamie Greene

The added element of risk for you is that not only do you hold your own organisation’s data but you deal with large amounts of data from other public sector organisations. Presumably, some of that data is quite sensitive. Will you give us an idea of the scale of the issue? How frequently do such attacks happen?

11:00  

Meeting of the Commission

Audit Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31 March 2025 and Auditor’s Report on the Accounts

Meeting date: 23 June 2025

Jamie Greene

Thank you. I am sure plenty of people would argue about the security of having data in the cloud versus holding it on hard drives in your own office, but that may be a discussion for another day. Thank you, chair.

Meeting of the Commission

Audit Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31 March 2025 and Auditor’s Report on the Accounts

Meeting date: 23 June 2025

Jamie Greene

I can work only with what I have in front of me, and the summary does not go into much detail.

You are right that the approved budget in the “Other” line was £578,000, while the actual spend was £121,000. As you have said, that could be because you have, in year, been able to distribute some of that money elsewhere, but it is quite hard to follow that.

On the obverse, the approved depreciation budget was £430,000, but according to the table, the spend turned out to be nearly £1 million, or 126 per cent over. Again, is that just a case of money being shifted around?

Meeting of the Commission

Audit Scotland Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31 March 2025 and Auditor’s Report on the Accounts

Meeting date: 23 June 2025

Jamie Greene

Richard Leonard is welcome to come back in on that point if he wishes.

This is an interesting area. I was under the impression that you have fixed fee rates for external organisations that, if I recall correctly, are subject to reasonably lengthy contracts. The sheer level of the rise in external fees surprised me, though: it is nearly £1.7 million above what was budgeted. Are you saying that that rise has been driven not by understaffing issues in your organisation but by the clients that you manage?

Meeting of the Commission

“Quality of public audit in Scotland: Annual report 2024/25”

Meeting date: 23 June 2025

Jamie Greene

As a side question to that, in our earlier session we talked particularly about some of the costs involved, but I know that it has been a bit of a tough slog for many public organisations to try to bring people back together and get people back into the office. Is there a direction of travel on that for your organisation? Has it stabilised? Are you still trying to encourage people, particularly your auditors, to work face to face more? Has there been any resistance to that?

12:00