Letter to Convener from Stephen Boyle, the Auditor General for Scotland, 20 December 2021
Dear Convener
I briefed the Committee on my report on the 2020/21 audit of National Records of Scotland on 9 December 2021. As part of this, Committee members requested further information on some areas which I provide below.
Members were interested in the main sources of additional costs associated with the delay in the census. The information provided below is based on records in our possession. National Records of Scotland (NRS) would be best placed to provide additional detail should this be required by the Committee
• Online Collection Instrument (OCI) – costs have increased by approximately £2 million for staff resource to support the extended timeline and increased costs for licensing, hosting and support.
• Data Collection Operational Management System (DCOMS) – costs have increased by approximately £2 million. As above, this is driven by staff resource to support the extended timeline, and by increased costs for licensing, hosting and support.
• Print, Logistics and Paper Capture (PLPC) – costs have increased by approximately £4 million. This is partly due to the cost of developing and testing the approach to manual coding and is not directly due to the census delay. The additional costs also include increased management costs, hosting costs and staff resource to support the extended timeline.
• Mobile Workforce Management (MWM) – costs have increased by approximately £1 million due to licensing of the scheduling tool and additional staff resource.
• External Delivery Partner – Costs have increased by approximately £3.5 million, driven by increased use of delivery partner resource and by increased support over the replanning period.
• Internal staff costs have increased by £6.9m. The cost of staffing the programme for an extra year (in the region of £11m in 20/21) has been partially offset by eliminating lower priority posts, advancing dates staff will roll off the programme, and implementing a cap on total staff costs.
Members were interested in how NRS was managing its financial pressures arising from the census.
In December 2021, an update to NRS’ Audit and Risk Committee reported that unfunded financial pressures had been reduced from £1.5 million to £0.5 million through a detailed examination of census budgets, including a focus on reviewing delivery costs during the Census Collect phase when the census goes live. This review has drawn on lessons learned from the censuses which ONS and NISRA conducted earlier this year. NRS has also been working with suppliers to manage costs down.
NRS carried out a resourcing review in August 2021 to assess the need for additional staff and ensure that all recruitment is business critical. NRS identified the need for a number of additional posts as well as changes to some posts which were already planned. This was approved by the Executive Management Board in October. There is now a freeze on any further recruitment, with only the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) and deputy-SRO able to propose exceptions if there is a strong business justification.
Members expressed an interest in seeing the detailed options appraisal report which resulted in the census being delayed until March 2022. We do not have this and, as the report is not in the public domain, NRS will be best placed provide it to the Committee. NRS will also be able to provide more detailed information about the work to gain access to other sources of administrative data.
It may also be helpful to clarify a couple of other points which were discussed at the session on 9 December. Mr Beattie mentioned previous Section 22 reports on NRS but I can confirm that the current report is the first Section 22 report prepared on the audit of NRS.
In relation to the expansion of the Census Programme Board membership in 2019, NRS has confirmed that ONS and NISRA have been represented on the Board since its inception. NRS will be able to provide more detailed information on the Board’s membership both prior to 2019 and after its expansion.
I hope the Committee finds this information helpful.
Yours sincerely
Stephen Boyle