Chamber and committees

I have one final question for clarification. Alyson Stafford, you said that the Scottish Government had accepted all the recommendations in the briefing, but you have also indicated that there are parts of it that you do not accept. You have indicated one of them. Are there other areas in the briefing that you have reservations about?

We appreciate that, but we take what the Auditor General says literally, and we assume that he has access to any information, documents and so on that are available. If he says that it is difficult to get a complete picture of how the Government is directing funding to infrastructure priorities, we tend to take that at face value. I hear what you say but does it mean that the Auditor General did not get full access to all the information that he needed, and that that led him to his conclusion?

I will leave it at that. Thank you.

Alison, you could perhaps answer the question that I am about to ask, which is related to that point. What work are you doing to improve reporting on major capital projects and infrastructure investment plan progress, including providing the information in tabular form, for example, which would make it easier to track over a period?

To what extent were emissions reduction and equality considerations taken into account when the IIP was being developed, and how will you weave them into the consideration of the next IIP?

Are there any barriers to that?

The process would rely, therefore, on some kind of knowledge base that would be applied to a product or service. Is that knowledge systemic? Does that mean relying on the people in the area of procurement to have that knowledge? Do they keep files? How do they do it?

I want to cover a slightly different issue. We have heard about people’s experiences of framework contracts and lotting. How much of a challenge is it for you to make such opportunities accessible to smaller regionally focused firms, while at the same time sharing the risk and ensuring good value? I will come back to Lynette Robertson on that.

Mention has been made of procurement as a vehicle for managing or even reducing costs. We have heard that goods and services that cost more up front might offer better value for money over a longer period. To what extent are you able to make decisions that are informed by calculating the whole-life value of the product or service that is being provided? Are there any barriers to that? Perhaps Gordon Beattie could comment on that first.

I turn to the slightly different subject of framework contracts and lotting, which we have heard much about. What has your experience been? How much of a challenge is it to make opportunities accessible to smaller and perhaps regionally focused firms, while sharing risk and ensuring good value, which is quite tough? I will go to Gordon Beattie to answer for the NHS.