Chamber and committees

Can I just confirm that, as you said earlier, there is no impact assessment from the UK Government of the pros and cons and of issues to do with international work?

Thank you for joining us this morning. We heard from the first panel about the status of Channel 4 overseas, the high regard that the channel and its productions are seen in and how the independent sectors are a key driver of that success. I wanted to ask you the same question that I asked the first panel: how might privatisation affect that international work and that international standing of the channel and what it produces?

I appreciate the technical nature of the evidence this morning and, as you said, it was a technical decision to delay rather than a political one. Most of my questions have already been answered, but I wanted to pick up on one thing that Paul Lowe alluded to earlier, around changing attitudes in society towards these censuses. Could you expand on that? Did I pick you up correctly that there may be a changing attitude?

This might seem counterintuitive, but would a four-day week benefit your organisation? After all, in the majority of cases in which such an approach has been implemented, productivity has improved. You might well think that you are at a point at which productivity cannot increase any more, but if you are talking about staff wanting to reutilise their skills and move more flexibly around the organisation, I think that there would be some opportunities in that respect. Has that been looked at in the context of your organisation?

Thank you.

Alan and Stephen, both of you have mentioned the importance of wellbeing among staff. Stephen, I think that you said that empathy and resilience are strong values. I am trying to contrast that with quite a stark figure for the level of staff turnover, which I think has gone up from 5.1 to 9.4 per cent over the past year.

Is that a bit of a red light for you? What is the story underneath that turnover? What themes are coming out of the exit interviews with staff? Are there issues underlying the decimation of people in the industry or where they want to go next? I am trying to second-guess what those issues are. Is it a natural consequence of Covid that people are now thinking about the next position in their careers? I do not know. It is tempting to look at a figure like that and hear alarm bells. What is the story behind that? On the face of it, you are losing people.

Okay. It was useful to unpack that. I am much more reassured now.

You mentioned the staff surveys—the pulse surveys and the wider annual surveys. One thing that has come out of that is a series of graphs comparing Audit Scotland with appointed firms.

Whether it is easy to make an exact equivalence in that respect is, I suppose, debatable, but on the face of it, staff in all those firms—and, indeed, your organisation—say that they all feel relatively well encouraged and supported in doing their work. However, there seems to be a bit of a gap between Audit Scotland and the appointed firms with regard to the resources that you have, and a noticeable gap between what Audit Scotland staff and staff at the appointed firms are saying about training and development, with the latter seeming to be more satisfied in both areas. What is your response to that issue, given that it seems to be flashing amber, if not red?

Thank you for sharing those thoughts.

I want to reflect on something that you said about transport. You said that there are some people who are living in the Highlands who feel a bit isolated and that there are people who need to travel to get advice and support. You also spoke about families who need to access schools that are not close by. You will be aware that, in Scotland, we have concessionary bus travel for over-60s and under-22s. Have Ukrainian people who are living here been able to access those schemes? What do you think about the idea of extending concessionary travel—free travel—on buses to all people who have been displaced and are living here temporarily?

Mr Mankovskyi was clear that the vast majority of Ukrainians want to return home, but I also hear from the advice centres that some may have been displaced several times by war and may wish to remain here and look for longer-term employment in the UK. How are you factoring that in? There is some complexity about visas and UK Government policy. How are you supporting people who want to remain in the UK and in Scotland?

Thank you for joining us this morning. We know that you are exceptionally busy dealing with casework and supporting people.

The previous time that you came to the committee, we talked about the Ukrainian seasonal workers who are here. At the time, the details of the Ukraine extension scheme were just coming out. I want to get your thoughts on how the scheme has worked. Have people been able to apply for it, have they got their visa extensions and are there any particular forms of advice and support that people still need?