Chamber and committees

Follow up Session with Accounts Commission on Priorities - 9 September 2021

Letter from Convener to Interim Chair of the Accounts Commission - 9 September 2021

Dear Elma

Thank you and your colleagues for giving evidence to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on 31 August 2021. The Committee welcomed the opportunity to hear from you on your initial priorities and found the session immensely helpful. In reflecting on the evidence it heard, there were a few points that the Committee would wish to follow-up on.

In particular, the Committee was interested in timescales for the various reports you referred to in the course of your evidence. While I appreciate that your website does include a timetable for future reports, is there something else that you could share with the Committee providing a more detailed and longer-term look at your reporting schedule?

The Committee was also interested in getting a better understanding of where local authorities currently stand in terms of digital inclusivity and would be grateful if there was anything you could share on this point.

In addition, the Committee was interested to learn more about how your next overview report would take into account how councils are using equality impact assessments to look through a gendered lens at the decisions they make that effect women.

And finally, the Committee would welcome further information of how council’s responses to the climate emergency are being measured.
I look forward to hearing from you and request a response by 29 September 2021.

Yours sincerely
Ariane Burgess
Convener, Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee