Chamber and committees

Accounts Commission's Priorities - 29 September 2021

Letter from Interim Chair, Accounts Commission to the Convener - 29 September 2021

Dear Ariane

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Accounts Commission’s priorities

Thank you for your letter of 10 September in the above regard and thank you and your colleagues for your time on 31 August. This letter provides responses to the questions you raised in your follow up to that meeting.

First, you asked about timescales for our reporting. One of the principles underpinning our new dynamic work programme and our recently published Strategy 2021-26 is being flexible and agile. Our experience over the last 18 months has led us to change how we plan, manage and report our audit work. We no longer have a longer-term reporting schedule that we review and agree once a year. Working with the Auditor General for Scotland and Audit Scotland, we now review our planned programme on a quarterly basis to ensure that it remains focused on the most important issues. This also enables us to shift the focus of audits, change timescales, introduce new pieces of work and if necessary, stop others as required.

You also asked about where local authorities currently stand in terms of digital inclusivity. The Commission’s Interim Deputy Chair published a blog on this issue earlier this month, highlighting how Covid-19 had exacerbated digital exclusion. Our Digital progress in local government report, published earlier this year, recommended that councils identify and address barriers and inequalities to make sure that no one is left behind. It said that councils need to understand the needs of those experiencing digital exclusion and put a strategy in place to ensure equity and access for all citizens. Our planned future work on digital exclusion will look at how much progress councils have made, both in understanding user needs and how they are involving citizens in designing digital public services.

You then asked about councils’ use of equality impact assessments (EIAs). While we do not plan to look specifically at EIAs as part of the 2022 local government overview, we will be looking at the extent to which councils’ recovery plans are focused on tackling equality gaps - existing, Covid-19-exacerbated, or created, in a wider definition of inequalities: not just the protected characteristics but in terms of the Fairer Scotland Duty. In our 2021 local government overview we recognised that women (along with some other groups) were disproportionately affected by changes to the labour market and caring responsibilities. We will be looking at how well councils understand the impacts on different people and communities and are focusing their recovery activity to support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.

Finally, you asked for further information on how councils’ responses to the climate emergency are being measured. We plan to integrate climate change into our existing audit work and produce specific stand-alone climate change outputs, some of which will be joint with the Auditor General for Scotland (who is responsible for auditing the rest of the public sector). Our 2022 local government overview will include commentary on how councils are responding to climate change. We are still developing our longer-term plans but we are clear that we can scrutinise the action councils are taking in response to the climate emergency. We can also look across the public sector to see how well public bodies are collaborating and working with the third and private sectors. We plan to publish updates on our work in this area in the coming months.

The next five years will see Scotland start its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. We want our work to influence that recovery while we continue in our role of reporting on the performance of local government and helping it to improve. Our strategy sets out our aims for the next five years, the priorities we will use in fulfilling these aims, and the principles and approaches used to shape our reporting. We will use our statutory powers to shine a spotlight on inequalities, funding and the financial sustainability of local government, recovery from the pandemic and local government’s relationship with its communities.

I trust that this provides detail you were looking for. I look forward to working with you and the Committee.

Yours sincerely

Elma Murray
Interim Chair, Accounts Commission