Public Audit Committee
The 2020/21 audit of NHS National Services Scotland: Response to the Covid-19 pandemic
Background
On 17 June 2021, the Auditor General for Scotland published Covid-19: Personal protective equipment. On 12 October 2021 the Auditor General published The 2020/21 audit of NHS National Services Scotland. The Committee considered both reports together.
The section 22 report says:
"NHS NSS used emergency procurement provisions to award PPE contracts without competition. The auditor reported some variation in the procurement arrangements applied but concluded that satisfactory arrangements were in place. In addition, this work did not find any evidence of preferential treatment or bias in the awarding of contracts."
Read the Briefing paper: Covid-19: Personal protective equipment on Audit Scotland's website
Information about the Public Audit Committee's consideration of both reports can be found below.
Meetings
4 November 2021
The Committee took evidence from:
Stephen Boyle, the Auditor General for Scotland; Carol Grant, Audit Director, Audit Services and Ashleigh Madjitey, Audit Manager, Performance Audit and Best Value, Audit Scotland.
Read the agenda and meeting papers, 4 November 2021
Read the Official Report, 4 November 2021
Read the meeting minutes, 4 November 2021
Decision: The Committee agreed to invite NHS National Services Scotland and the Scottish Government to give evidence at a future meeting.
2 December 2021
The Committee took evidence from:
Mary Morgan, Chief Executive, Carolyn Low, Director of Finance; and Graeme Beattie, Director of National Procurement, NHS National Services Scotland; and
Caroline Lamb, Chief Executive of NHS Scotland and Director-General of Health and Social Care; and Richard McCallum, Director of Health Finance and Governance, Scottish Government.
Followed by:
Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, Carole Grant, Audit Director, Audit Services; and Ashleigh Madjitey, Audit Manager, Performance Audit and Best Value, Audit Scotland.
Read the agenda and meeting papers, 2 December 2021
Read the Official Report of 2 December 2021
Read the meeting minutes, 2 December 2021
Decision: The Committee agreed to close its scrutiny of the report and briefing and write to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on issues raised during the meeting.
The Committee also recognised that there may be outstanding issues on the long-term planning and procurement and supply of personal protective equipment that the Committee may return to in the future.
Correspondence
Letter to the Convener from Stephen Boyle, the Auditor General for Scotland, 22 November 2021