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The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
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Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Richard Leonard
We will move straight to questions. I invite our deputy convener, Sharon Dowey, to ask the first question.
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Although it is not in the written report, the £550,000 increase in grant aid to the Crofting Commission, which has been provided for by the Scottish Government, was alluded to earlier on, and Pat Kenny said that it was, in part, to address an enhancement of staffing capacity.
I have two lines of questioning. First, could you describe in more detail what those job roles are and whether the enhancement was about filling vacancies or increasing capacity? Have there been particular logjams, where the commission has not dealt with things as speedily as it might have? Is the enhancement of staffing capacity an attempt to address that?
Secondly, are other, non-staffing costs being met through that increased level of grant aid that has been provided for?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Thank you. There will be public interest in the proportionate increases in the salary levels from the regulatory team that is, I presume, working on the front line and those who are in strategic senior management positions. There will also be an interest in the net outcome from the new structure compared to what it was under the previous structure.
My final point is to pick up on something that you spoke about earlier. Some of the new commissioners were elected and some were appointed. I am interested in understanding what training and development they have been given. In answer to Colin Beattie’s earlier questions, you talked about the role of the public bodies unit and there is an expectation that training will be provided. In our report, we identified that we would want to understand what quality of training is being provided to a new cohort of commissioners.
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Richard Leonard
It strikes me that a lot of the six-page report reflects on the recommendations and lessons that were put at the point of the previous section 22 report on the Crofting Commission and, indeed, on this committee’s conclusions. I just wonder whether it would not have served transparency a little better if you had listed the 41 recommendations and given some kind of tracking of how they had been progressed, so that we had a sense of that. I do not know whether you alluded to that as being part of the internal audit but, as far as the published document that is before us is concerned, that is not captured. I wonder whether you would consider that.
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Okay. Maybe it is just me, but I thought that, for completeness, given the scale and breadth of the recommendations—seven on financial sustainability and the other 34 on governance and transparency—it might have been useful to capture those details in the document that is before us, but I hear what you say.
Craig Hoy has some questions.
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Richard Leonard
The principal item on our agenda is consideration of the 2021-22 audit of the Crofting Commission, which has been laid before Parliament and about which we have an evidence session. I welcome our three witnesses: Stephen Boyle, the Auditor General for Scotland; Pat Kenny, a director for audit and assurance at Deloitte LLP; and Kirsty Ridd, an audit manager at Audit Scotland.
We have some questions to put to the witnesses, but before we get into those I ask the Auditor General to make a short opening statement.
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Richard Leonard
I re-emphasise the point that it would be useful for us to see what interaction there has been between the commission and the crofting communities. Although many of us would welcome the arrangement of direct elections, it has to be more than that and an on-going relationship. It may be that we need to speak to the Crofting Commission itself about that, but any perspective that you could give would be very helpful.
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Sharon Dowey has another question to put to you.
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Richard Leonard
But—sorry, Auditor General, I will bring you in in a moment—is that a net increase in the budget, to pay for senior management, or is it just a rebalancing of the existing budget?
Public Audit Committee
Section 22 Report: “The 2021/22 audit of the Crofting Commission”
Meeting date: 2 February 2023
Richard Leonard
Yes, that is quite reassuring. For the purposes of today, you said that you did not think that the majority of it had gone on to the senior management team. In rough terms—or exact terms, if you have that information—what is the division of additional resource that is going into those front-line posts versus that which is going into the senior management team?
