Chamber and committees

Joanne—do you want to come in?

There are still quite a few unanswered questions and we will need to consider how best to respond to them. Willie Coffey has questions to raise.

That would be helpful.

I do not think that anybody disputes that, Mr Cook, and I will call on Jackie McAllister in a second, but the facts of the matter are that, in the past couple of weeks, the GFG Alliance has been brought to book by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and it is the subject of a Serious Fraud Office investigation. As you said earlier, permanent secretary, Greensill Capital has collapsed, and there are question marks around the GFG Alliance’s governance structure. Given that the Scottish Government is almost a partner in the enterprise, as it is party to a deal with the GFG Alliance, what contingency plans are you making?

Colin Beattie would like to come in.

I think that it would be helpful. I know that other processes are under way, but there is an important aspect to the issue for the Public Audit Committee, which is about the decision-making process. The Lord Advocate admitted liability in court, which therefore had financial consequences. If you could get back to us on that, that would be very helpful.

I will move on. Colin Beattie has a series of questions.

Agenda item 3 is a review of the section 22 report arising from the 2020-21 audit of Scottish Canals. I welcome our witnesses for this part of the meeting. The Auditor General for Scotland, Stephen Boyle, is joining us in the committee room. Graeme Greenhill, who is senior manager in performance audit and best value at Audit Scotland, and Joanne Brown, who is a partner with Grant Thornton UK LLP, are online. I think that Grant Thornton UK LLP carried out the audit on the ground with Scottish Canals.

I invite the Auditor General to give an opening statement.

That is helpful. In the report, you describe the lack of data as “a barrier to progress” that needs to be broken down.

Craig Hoy will ask our final question.

Willie Coffey, who is joining us via videolink, has a number of questions about the report.

I have a final question. In a sense, it is absolutely critical that we ask it. Clearly, there are wider implications for the whole public sector of the incident on 24 December 2020. In paragraph 34 of the report, you make it clear that it is important that all public sector bodies review the recommendations of the independent reviews that have been carried out on SEPA’s cyberattack, and that lessons are learned from what happened to SEPA. Will you talk us through your understanding of any steps that have been taken to date, either by the Scottish Government or by other public sector bodies, to make sure that lessons are learned and that the experience that SEPA has gone through is shared and acted on?