Chamber and committees

I will go back to a couple of answers that Karen Watt gave. In particular, I think that you described how big changes had taken place with regard to the funding arrangements. However, when we took evidence from Derek Smeall of the college principals group, this is what he said about the new model of distribution:

“There is no new funding model: there have been adjustments to an existing funding model, and they have been very minor.”—[Official Report, Public Audit Committee, 30 November 2023; c 31.]

How do you answer that?

I am sorry, Mr Rennick, but I again want to pick you up on your choice of language. You described the issue as being about “current need” and “future need”, but the infrastructure plan talks about there being an “urgent need”. That sense of urgency was spelled out clearly to us by stakeholders in the sector, who told us that there is a huge maintenance backlog and that there are health and safety issues, not just with RAAC but more broadly. In addition, there are the net zero targets, which are an important part of the Scottish Government’s vision for the future. What is being done now, urgently, to address some of those challenges?

Do you have any sense of the timeline for that? When will a decision be taken about the extent to which that can be put in the hands of the autonomous bodies that we are talking about?

I am not giving you ministerial direction or anything—I do not have that authority. I am just trying to get a sense of how long that process will take.

I will move things on by inviting Willie Coffey to ask some questions.

Yes. Nice try, Willie.

I invite the deputy convener, Sharon Dowey, to put a final series of questions to the witnesses.

I have two very final questions to put to you, which I hope will be fairly straightforward.

First, back in October, when we had the Auditor General before us talking about the briefing, he reminded us of the fact that the Scottish Funding Council’s position is to review the regional boards structure. We have heard concerns about, for example, the Lanarkshire regional board and its usefulness and so on, and I think that the Auditor General also mentioned the arrangements in Glasgow. What is the current thinking on the future and purpose of the regional boards structure?

Just for the record, and to get a sense of how long the deliberation is taking and when a decision will be made, can you tell us when you made the recommendations to the Scottish Government on the Lanarkshire position and the Glasgow position?

Okay. My final question is about the component parts of that and the mergers, such as in Glasgow, for example. Anniesland College, Cardonald College and Langside College were brought together to create Glasgow Clyde College. I think that, when they were separate, they had almost 40,000 students, but now just 15,000 students are catered for. Are those figures right?

Good morning. I welcome everyone to the first meeting of the Public Audit Committee in 2024. The first item on the committee’s agenda is for members to consider whether to take agenda items 3 and 4 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

The main item on our agenda is further consideration of the Auditor General for Scotland’s briefing, “Scotland’s colleges 2023”. I welcome our witnesses, who have all joined us in Parliament. First, I welcome Neil Rennick, who is the director general for education and justice, and Stuart Greig, who is the deputy director of governance and assurance for post-school education in the Scottish Government.

We are also joined by the chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council, Karen Watt. You are very welcome. Also joining us from the Scottish Funding Council is Lynne Raeside, who is the deputy director of external affairs.

We have a number of questions to put to you this morning, but before we get to those, I invite Neil Rennick, then Karen Watt, to make short opening statements.