Chamber and committees

Okay. Can somebody tell me what this chief operating officer does, and why they need £77,000 worth of training?

You are a very experienced economics professor. The CV for Jo Armstrong, who was on Mr McGill’s audit and risk committee, says that she holds two economics degrees and is a business economist. Therefore, you are familiar with the academic landscape. Earlier on, did you say that you were not aware of any of this at the time?

The business case appears to have been written by the person who was benefiting from the course, which is quite extraordinary.

Can I move on to Mr Brannen? What do we spend on the training of top civil servants in the Scottish Government in that area?

Ooft!

I am sorry to interrupt, but we are really running against the clock and the deputy convener has some questions to ask. I am going to bring him in now. If you get the opportunity, Kersti, you can respond to Jamie Greene’s questions.

We are out of time, so I am going to wrap up this session and thank everyone for their evidence this morning.

You have given us quite a lot to think about, and I have one very quick final question. What is the value of six months’ salary for the chief executive who was paid off at the end of December?

I welcome everyone back to the meeting for consideration of agenda item 3, which is on the section 23 report on the national health service in Scotland in 2023. I welcome our witnesses for this evidence session. We are joined by the Auditor General for Scotland, Stephen Boyle. Good morning, Auditor General. The audit director, Cornilius Chikwama, is back with us for this session. You are very welcome, Cornilius—good morning. Leigh Johnston, a senior manager at Audit Scotland, is also joining us, as is Martin McLauchlan, who is an audit manager at Audit Scotland.

We are a little bit up against the clock this morning, Auditor General, but, before we get to our questions, I invite you to make an opening statement.

I am going to kick off with a question that relates to the last point that you made, which was your critique that there is not really a long-term national vision for the national health service in Scotland. We have a new Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care in post. It is not your job to advise Government ministers what to do, but in the context of the job that you do have, what do you think the benefits would be of there being a clear national vision for the national health service? What effect would that have on the ability of boards to deliver the services that we need them to deliver?

Thank you for painting that bigger picture. That is a useful way to start the evidence session. I invite Graham Simpson to put to you some questions that follow on from that starting point.