Chamber and committees

Okay. I will turn to Michelle Quinn. One of the other things that have come out of the evidence that we have seen so far is that the former deputy director was also present at some of the meals that involved purchasing alcohol with the credit card. What is the position of the DG net zero on that?

Rather than participating in something like that, do you not think that it would have been his role to challenge that?

Mr MacRae, were you surprised by that, too?

As we are at the start of this morning’s session, can you remind us how many employees WICS has?

Thank you very much indeed. I take the opportunity to thank Fulton MacGregor for his brief spell on the committee.

Under the second agenda item, does the committee agree to take items 4 and 5 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Our main agenda item this morning is further consideration of the 2022-23 audit of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, which involved a section 22 report being issued.

I welcome our witnesses, who are from the Water Industry Commission for Scotland and the Scottish Government. First, I welcome Michelle Quinn, who is here as the Scottish Government’s interim director general net zero. She is joined by Kersti Berge, who is director of energy and climate change in that directorate. We are also joined by Catherine Williams, who is the interim deputy director of water policy in the Scottish Government. From the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, we have David Satti, who is the interim chief executive, and Donald MacRae, who is the chair of the board. We are also joined by Robin McGill, who is the chair of the audit and risk committee as well as being a member of the board of WICS.

We have some questions to put to you, but before we get to those, I invite Donald MacRae and then Michelle Quinn to make short opening statements.

Can you give us an example?

Mr MacRae, you were very bullish there, saying that you needed the best legal advice. Did that go out to any procurement process?

But, Mr MacRae, you were answering questions in the context of the KC’s retention. Did the position of the retained KC—formerly Queen’s counsel—go through any tendering process?