Finance Committee, 30 Nov 2004
Meeting date: Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Official Report
350KB pdf
Budget Process 2005-06
The third item is to consider the Scottish Commission for Public Audit's report on Audit Scotland's spending plans. Members will see that apart from the report itself, we have a note from the clerk, which outlines the roles of the SCPA and the Finance Committee in the process. In fact, I met Margaret Jamieson to establish those properly.
The paper notes that this committee has overall responsibility for scrutinising all expenditure that is paid out of the Scottish consolidated fund but that the SCPA has the primary role in scrutinising Audit Scotland's budget, as laid out by the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000. Members will see that the scrutiny process is described at paragraphs 4 and 5. We do not directly scrutinise Audit Scotland, but we consider the SCPA's scrutiny and take account of it in our report to Parliament. Members will also note that a revised agreement will be drawn up, which will formalise the custom and practice that have developed.
The report is mainly non-controversial. The SCPA recommends that the spending proposals be approved. The SCPA asks whether Audit Scotland presenting its proposals at a later date than that stated in the present agreement causes problems for the Finance Committee. In practice, it does. Because of the delay, we were not able to consider the report until today, which means that we have only two days to incorporate it into our budget report. I recognise that the circumstances have been unfortunate, but do members agree to note the report?
Members indicated agreement.
I have a point about VAT, which was a cause célèbre last time we considered the matter, when I asked why VAT was being levied. From a quick glance at the accounts it looks like VAT is £336,000 in 2004-05, and will go to zero in 2005-06. With other income moving up, there is a possibility that there may have been a reclaim of VAT. Paragraph 14 of the report states:
"The Commission would also like to place on the record its satisfaction that the question of Audit Scotland's VAT status has finally been resolved, although this will result in an 8% increase in charges for all audits in November 2004."
I just do not get that, when there is zero VAT. It does not compute.
There is a resolution that is positive and proceeds along the lines that we suggested last year. I can ask Audit Scotland to produce a short note to clarify the position.
That would be helpful.