Chamber and committees

Thank you—that is helpful.

I have a couple of questions about procurement. It seems that the whole procurement process was wrong. We have recently heard in the news that the Scottish Government is procuring ferries from Turkey, as is Norway. However, Norway is paying only half the price for comparable ferries. Is there something very wrong with the Scottish Government’s procurement process that leads to it paying huge amounts of money for ferries and, in a way, perhaps not procuring them? Obviously, the ferries that we are talking about now have not been delivered and we have yet to see whether the others will be delivered.

Will you look into that in the future, given that it is about public spending and the cost to the public purse?

No. Thank you for letting me attend the meeting, convener.

Obviously, there is no paper trail but, when you were doing your investigation, Auditor General, did you ask the accountable officer who, at ministerial level, told them to proceed?

You have not directly asked the accountable officer whether they recall who made that decision.

Thank you. I will try and be as quick as I can.

At the start of the process, the NHS Scotland resource allocation committee—NRAC—settlement was not paid in full to NHS Highland. Is that the case now? In relation to the challenges coming down the road, obviously, there is Covid recovery, but there is also the taking on of maternity services on behalf of Grampian for Moray until Dr Gray’s hospital is restored. You also talked about the elective centre. How will you cope with those challenges, and are you receiving the funding that you require in order to deliver for the people of the Highlands?

That, and the level at which such decisions are taken. At what level would you expect a decision of such magnitude to be taken?

Thank you, convener—I appreciate that. I know that others have a lot more questions, so I will keep my questions quite short.

I am just seeking some clarification. Having listened to the discussion, I think that it is clear that communication between CMAL and Transport Scotland was documented. It was Transport Scotland that came back to CMAL with ministerial decisions, but is there any paperwork on Transport Scotland’s discussions with ministers to show how it put these things to ministers and which ministers responded?

So, there is no documentation on ministers’ decisions and how they were carried out.

I understand that this particular decision was taken within a day. Is that normal? How would you expect a decision of such magnitude to be taken within Government?

Thank you.