Chamber and committees

Colin Beattie, do you want to come in on the issue of social security fraud, or has that been covered already?

We will return to the issue of the digital dimension, which Mr Lowe raised in his answers to Craig Hoy’s questions. I will come to Willie Coffey to ask questions on that. However, before that, I will bring in Colin Beattie to continue on the theme of the financial implications of the delay to the census.

Mr Lowe has frozen. I do not know whether we are able to—

Yes, that is helpful. Nevertheless, I go back to the fact of the matter, which is that in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the census went ahead in March 2021 and, as I read it, there was a 97 per cent participation rate. You made the point that Scotland had a different status at various points in the month of March 2021. That is clearly a factor but, notwithstanding that, we have been told that one reason why the ONS and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency were able to go ahead was that they had access to other sources of administrative data, which I presume would be there for them to rely on to add texture to the returns from census day. Can you explain why NRS did not have access to those same sources of administrative data?

Thank you, Sharon.

I conclude the session by thanking the witnesses—Paul Lowe, Linda Sinclair, Peter Whitehouse and Anne Slater—for joining us. I do not think that we heard from Anne Slater, but she has been on hand to give evidence.

Reflecting on what Paul Lowe said at the beginning, we understand that NRS is not the Office for National Statistics, but it is the body that is charged with delivering the census in Scotland. We are concerned about the efficiency and effectiveness of that process. It is exactly two months to the day until census day on 20 March, and the committee may well invite the witnesses back after the census later in the year—it will be for the committee to decide that—to reflect on how it went and any broader lessons that can be learned, as well as to consider the future.

Paul Lowe said that 10 years is a long time. I am not sure whether the next census will be in 10 years’ time or nine years’ time. We have not touched on that question, but I am sure that we can return to it.

I reiterate that we welcome your commitment to give us a copy of the options appraisal. If any other aspects of the evidence that you have given this morning would be supported well by any written submissions, the committee would welcome that. Thank you for your time and your willingness to answer the questions that we have put.

I suspend the meeting while we change witnesses.

Before we finish up this evidence session, there is one other area that I want to touch on very briefly. One of the recurring themes in the work of the committee and its predecessor committees is a regular acquaintance with organisations that are not meeting the standards that we expect because of a failure to plan their workforce requirements for the present and the future.

I recall that the 2018-19 report on Bòrd na Gàidhlig identified insufficient workforce planning and an excess of vacancies as issues that were seen to be part of the fundamental problems that the organisation faced. Where are things with workforce planning now? Have there been improvements? Are there any other workforce priorities that the board needs to consider?

That positive note concludes the committee’s questions. I thank the Auditor General, Graeme Greenhill and Pat Kenny for joining us to give their evidence and insights into the progress that has been made with Bòrd na Gàidhlig.

I draw the item to a close and suspend the meeting briefly.

Welcome back to the first meeting of the Public Audit Committee in 2022. In this part of our deliberations, we will receive evidence on a recently completed Audit Scotland report into NHS Highland. I am delighted to welcome to give evidence the Auditor General for Scotland, Stephen Boyle—welcome back. In this session, Stephen is joined by Leigh Johnston, who is a senior manager for performance audit and best value at Audit Scotland. I am also pleased to extend a welcome to Joanne Brown, who is a partner at Grant Thornton and has been working on the audit.

I invite the Auditor General to make a short opening statement.

Thank you. I am extremely sorry, but we have run out of time in this evidence session. There is quite a lot to follow up on, not least the points that Joanne Brown was addressing just now.

I take the opportunity once again to thank you, Joanne, for your time and your evidence, which has been illuminating. I thank Leigh Johnston for her input, as always, and I thank Stephen Boyle, the Auditor General, for his work on this area.

I am sure that we will return to many of the themes that we have discussed today, not least in the light of the overall NHS Scotland audit report that Audit Scotland will produce next month. I bring the public part of the meeting to a close.

Thank you—that is useful.

I turn to Sharon Dowey, who has a series of questions on the theme of the cost pressures that are demonstrated in the audit report on NHS Highland.