Chamber and committees

The value of the canal network in its entirety has never been disclosed in accounts produced by Scottish Canals. What is the reason for that? Is that because the network consists of old, Victorian structures that have never been properly assessed since they were built centuries ago, or is there another reason? Why is that?

I think that Joanne Brown has frozen. I do not think that we can fix that. Auditor General, do you want to say anything else?

Thank you very much. If you feel the need, as you might, to bring in any of your colleagues over the next hour or so, please do so. Similarly, if Lesley Fraser or Alyson Stafford, who are online, wish to come in at any point, they should put an R in the chat function, and we will make sure that they are called to give their evidence.

I want to begin with a short question before I hand over to the rest of the committee. You mentioned governance as an issue and an area in which more work might be required. On 27 January, Michael Oliphant, the audit director in Audit Scotland, told the committee about concerns about “overambition”. He said that target dates and scores could sometimes be “overambitious” and that, as a result, there could be an implementation gap, which is something on which the Auditor General for Scotland has previously reflected.

Will you reflect on the part of the Audit Scotland report on the consolidated accounts? Will you look at the need for more clarity on the action that has been taken in order to allow us to understand better how risk management is being carried out and how risks are being addressed by the Scottish Government?

Jackie McAllister wants to come in.

Thank you. That was really helpful.

I understand that Scottish Canals changed its status from being a public corporation to being a non-departmental public body, which led to a change in its accounting requirements, but does Scottish Natural Heritage or Scottish Water have a fixed asset register? Will ScotRail need to have a fixed asset register in the future? Where does Scottish Canals sit in the spectrum of organisations in that regard?

Thank you. Colin Beattie has a couple of questions.

Is there a cast-iron guarantee that those accounts will be published, or are you now caveating that? I am bound to say to you that your predecessor sat before this committee’s equivalent in 2016 and gave an undertaking to provide whole public sector Scottish Government consolidated accounts, and we are still waiting in 2022.

I am sure that we will reflect on your evidence on that subject and we will decide what we think the next steps should be.

Permanent secretary, you have mentioned the national performance framework a few times. What plans do you have to improve performance reporting in the consolidated accounts?

We are coming to the last lap, permanent secretary. Sharon Dowey has a couple of questions to put to you, and then Willie Coffey will come back in before we finish.

For the final question or two, I hand over to Willie Coffey.