Chamber and committees

That would be useful. Having the actual figures to set against the proposed budget for 2024-25 makes more sense to us than looking at the previous year’s budget.

Good morning, and welcome to the second meeting in 2023 of the Scottish Commission for Public Audit. Two of our members—Sharon Dowey and Mark Ruskell—are attending remotely.

The first item on the agenda is to decide whether to take agenda items 3 and 4 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

The second item on our agenda is to take evidence on Audit Scotland’s budget proposal for 2024-25. Members can find a copy of the budget proposal, along with a covering letter from the Auditor General, in paper 1 of the meeting papers.

I welcome to the meeting Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland; Alan Alexander, chair of the board of Audit Scotland; and, from Audit Scotland, Martin Walker, director of corporate support, and Stuart Dennis, corporate finance manager.

I invite Professor Alexander and then the Auditor General to make short introductory statements.

While you are on the issue of travel and subsistence, your proposed budget for that is £402,000 and your budget for it last year was £496,000. It is interesting that there is no comparison with the actual for 2023-24. What is the actual for 2023-24?

That is certainly worth considering. As you say, it seems to be an extremely important area that we need to explore.

I want to look at the related costs. My understanding is that, in the budget figures for next year, £148,000 is included for the initial stages of the project. However, on page 12 of the proposal, paragraph 48, which is on your budget projections, says that “At this stage”, that figure

“does not include the potential additional requirement to meet demand arising from the audit modernisation project.”

That implies that the 2025-26 and 2026-27 figures that you show do not reflect the potential costs of the modernisation project.

That would be appreciated. At this point, I will bring in Mark Ruskell.

Okay. I will now bring in Richard Leonard.

You are still in that year, so you do not have a figure.

I invite Sharon Dowey to come in.

You mentioned travel and, indeed, travel costs have reduced over the years. However, from memory, I think that you are talking about a £95,000 increase in travel costs this year.