Item 6 is the committee’s annual report. In line with previous years, this is simply a factual report on the committee’s work for the past year. Are members content to agree the draft report and for me to liaise with the clerks on the publication date?
Members indicated agreement.
I do not know whether it is relevant to highlight this, but paragraph 25—the draft report’s final paragraph—says that the committee met 21 times and all the meetings took place in the Parliament. It struck me that other committees have undertaken various meetings outside the Parliament, across the country, but this committee has not done so.
We had a tour around NHS Highland.
Oh, sorry—so we did.
You were there.
No, I was not at that one.
Sorry.
Nonetheless, I stand corrected. Given other committees’ external activities, it is clear that they have been out of the Parliament a lot more. I mention the issue for the next committee in the next session.
A fair point has been raised. The Public Audit Committee’s work is of public interest, so hopefully the future committee will keep the issue in mind.
I point out to colleagues that this is our final meeting before dissolution. Before moving into private session, I want to thank, on the committee’s behalf, Audit Scotland and the Auditor General for their hard work and professionalism over the past five years. Their reports and the evidence and the support that they have provided to us have, as I am sure that all members will agree, been invaluable. I am sure that our successors will be as grateful as we are for their good work.
I would also like to thank our clerking team, led by Anne Peat. It goes without saying that we would be lost without the team—we would not be able to progress the committee’s agenda and the other supporting elements. I also thank the other staff who have supported us: the media team, the official reporters and the sound engineers, who ensure that the good work of the committee can be taken forward. I also thank the deputy convener, Mary Scanlon, Dr Simpson and Colin Keir, who are not seeking re-election to the Scottish Parliament. We hope that you have a long and healthy retirement, and we wish you all the very best for the future.
My experience is that we have worked together as a committee, despite our political differences. There have never been any divisions, despite there being a Government majority built into the committee. That is a credit to all committee members.
Hear, hear.
All the parliamentary committees should operate in that way—they should ensure that we can work together on the common agenda.
Does any member have a brief comment before we close?
When I came here in 1999, David McLetchie was my leader. He offered me the Health and Community Care Committee. I said, “I don’t know much about it. I go to the doctor once a year—that’s about it.” He said, “What is it that you want to do?” I said, “I would like to go on the Audit Committee.” He said, “That’s just a tick-box exercise. Nobody pays attention to that; it’s just a by-the-way committee. You’d be wasting your time on that committee.”
I must say that it is a committee that we have not heard of much until this session of Parliament. I would like to thank Hugh Henry, who gave me the courage to be a bit feistier in committee, and Iain Gray. Most of all, convener, I would like to thank you because you have convened this committee—it is the first one that you have convened—in a thoroughly professional manner. You have taken each and every one of us with you in both the public and the private sessions.
This is only my humble opinion, so it is not worth much, but I used to watch Margaret Hodge at Westminster and think, “The Public Accounts Committee is a really good committee—maybe we should be a bit more like that.” Under the convener’s leadership, with the forensic questioning of Tavish Scott and other long-standing committee members such as our resident auditors—Colin Beattie, the convener and me—and with the help of John Doyle and a few other characters along the way, I think that each and every one of us around the table has helped to bring this committee close to being on a level with the Public Accounts Committee at Westminster.
I know that people out there looked at John Doyle and thought, “I don’t want to be there.” I think that those people might be paying a bit more attention to the handouts that they take, and that they might even check their contracts with IT systems before signing them.
I want to commend the convener for his measured, thoughtful, consensual and thoroughly professional approach. It has been a privilege working with him, and it has been a great privilege working on the committee.
Again, I want to thank the Auditor General and her staff. Thank you so much.
I would like to join in the convener’s sentiments by thanking the Auditor General and her team; the clerks; the members around the table; the convener; Mary Scanlon, the deputy convener; and everybody else involved. I think that the committee has generally operated as the best example of a parliamentary committee. As a cross-party group, we have been quite collegiate. I welcome that. I have enjoyed my five years here. We will see what the dice roll brings next year and where we all end up.
As a latecomer, I have thoroughly enjoyed my brief time on the committee. The role of Audit Scotland has been phenomenally important in every committee that I have sat on throughout my 13 years in the Parliament—mainly on health committees, although I was on the Finance Committee at the beginning.
Without Audit Scotland’s reports, we could not provide the sort of scrutiny that we have been able to provide. In the past few months, it has been a great pleasure to serve on this committee. In fact, it has been the most collegiate committee that I have served on since the first Parliament. I commend colleagues for that.
I thank the convener for his comments. I totally agree with the comments about the Auditor General and the support staff as well as, of course, those about my fellow members. A couple of us are not coming back, and we have the privilege of looking back. Perhaps, like most people, we originally saw audit as a bit of a dry subject to get involved in. However, we have come across some of the most important situations, events and calling of people to account in this Parliament.
This committee is not like any other committee. I welcome the consensus. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve on the committee, so thank you very much and the best of luck for the future.
I agree with the comments that have been made so far. What struck me about the committee during this session is the collegiate fashion in which members undertook their duties. I have been fortunate to be on committees in which that has regularly been the case, but it has not been so for the entirety of the time. The members of this committee have tried to work together as a team, and they all deserve credit for that. It shows that, when the politicians from the various parties are able to come together, they can get a good job done—and we have certainly done that.
My final point is about a former member of this Parliament and this committee—Andrew Welsh. I joined the Public Audit Committee at the very beginning of the previous session in 2007, and Andrew told me that the Audit Committee was a fabulous committee. He said that Audit Scotland provides you with the bullets and it is up to you to fire the gun. He told me that on a regular basis. Audit Scotland certainly provides invaluable information and a huge amount of assistance. In this session, I think that the members of this committee have undertaken their duties with that information to hand. Thank you very much to Audit Scotland. That wee anecdote about Andrew Welsh will always stick with me.
Okay colleagues, before there is any disagreement, I will move the committee into private session. I note that we have received apologies from Tavish Scott.
11:29 Meeting continued in private until 12:01.Previous
Section 23 Reports