Chamber and committees

One of the areas in the report that we are usually very interested in—and we are again, on this occasion—is Scottish Government investment in private companies. I invite Willie Coffey to get us under way on that section.

Yes, of course. Before we leave that particular issue, as you relayed to us, Auditor General, the Lord Advocate has given a commitment to more public accountability and some form of “process of inquiry”—I think that that was the expression that was used—on the conclusion of the litigation. I suppose that two things arise from that. First, do you have any sense of when the litigation will be concluded? Secondly, do you know what the Lord Advocate means by a “process of inquiry”?

As a committee, we still have outstanding requests for access to that information and for as much of it as possible to be put into the public domain. We recognise that there probably are commercial sensitivities around some of the information, and we do not want to compromise the yard’s position in any way, but our position remains that there must be maximum transparency. I will not ask you to comment on that, unless you want to.

Another area that has been of routine concern to the committee—again, it is mentioned in your report—relates to the arrangements concerning the Lochaber aluminium smelter, which is owned by the Liberty Group, which is owned by the GFG Alliance, to which there are various subsidiary parts. In exhibit 2, you state:

“There continues to be uncertainty regarding the financial stability of GFG Alliance”.

Would you care to elaborate on that?

Do you publish a report on the audit of the Scottish National Investment Bank?

Our major item this morning is consideration of the 2022-23 audit of the Scottish Government’s consolidated accounts. I am pleased to welcome our witnesses: Stephen Boyle, the Auditor General for Scotland; Carole Grant, an audit director at Audit Scotland; and Helen Russell and Richard Robinson, senior audit managers at Audit Scotland.

Today’s evidence session is principally about the consolidated accounts, but we also want to take evidence on the Scottish Government’s workforce challenges, which is very much part of that. Richard Robinson is, I think, the lead auditor on that.

We have a large number of questions to put to you this morning, Auditor General, but, before we get to those, I invite you to make an opening statement.

Thank you. That assurance is very welcome. We have heard about road maps, processes, alternative proposals and so on. Your patience is exemplary, but ours is running out a little bit. We will see what response we get from the Scottish Government when we approach it.

I will move things along. We wanted to spend some time looking at the workforce reform agenda and, more broadly, at the public service reform agenda. I will invite the deputy convener back in, and Graham Simpson might want to come in on this issue as well.

Thank you. Of course, the progress that we are making towards the net zero targets and decarbonisation remains central to the considerations of the Public Audit Committee.

On that note, I thank you, Auditor General, and I thank Richard, Helen and Carole, for the evidence that you have given us this morning. It has been very useful, as always. It has triggered some potential areas into which we might dig a little deeper, and it has given us plenty of information to consider if and when we have an evidence session with the permanent secretary. Thank you very much.

I now move the committee into private session.

It is a simple question, Auditor General; it is a yes or no question.

Okay—go on then.

Is it part of your audit function to look at whether those criteria were applied in a case like that, especially where £9 million of public money has had to be written off?