Chamber and committees

There is a considerable backlog of maintenance, as highlighted in the Audit Scotland report. What are the Scottish Government’s plans to address that?

Does that include consideration of RAAC, or reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete?

Thank you very much, Fulton MacGregor.

I take this opportunity to put on record my thanks to Willie Coffey, who has made an outstanding contribution to the committee not only in this session of Parliament, but in previous sessions. He will be greatly missed. Thank you, Willie, for the work that you have done with the committee.

The second item is for members to decide whether to take agenda items 4, 5 and 6 in private. Are we content to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

I will ask you at the outset whether you accept the recommendations that are made in the Audit Scotland report.

Okay. I will look at the recommendations that were made in the report from last year, which are covered in appendix 3 of the report from this year. It is a summation of progress that has been made against the recommendations from the 2022 report, which are grouped into nine broad areas. The Auditor General’s assessment describes that some progress against the recommendations has been made in some areas, but that there has been only limited progress in others and some where no progress was made. How do you respond to that summation in appendix 3 of this year’s report?

Thanks for that. We would be interested in being sent the link, so that we can look at that work.

One other thing of interest is the asset management and capital investment strategy, which I think is due for publication. Has it been published? Is there a date for its publication?

But is your cost estimate likely to break the £1 billion barrier?

On that note, I will draw this morning’s session to a close. Caroline Lamb, I thank you for answering the questions that we have put to you. John Burns and Richard McCallum, I thank you, too, for your input.

There were a couple of areas that we did not quite get to, so we might write to you with some follow-up questions. You have also committed to giving us some information that you were not able to provide in oral evidence this morning.

I thank you very much indeed, and I draw the public part of this morning’s committee session to a close.

Okay. One of the other variables on these contracts is that some have so-called secondary periods, which is, as I understand it, an extension of the PFI contract. Can you tell us what your understanding is of how many of those are in the system or we are likely to face between, for example, now and 2030?