Under agenda item 2, the committee will consider the follow-up response from the Scottish Prison Service to the section 22 report by the Auditor General entitled, "The 2004/05 audit of the Scottish Prison Service". Members will recall that we wrote to the Scottish Prison Service and, following its response, sought further clarification. We have received a letter, which members have had the opportunity to read. I invite comments and questions from members.
I want to clarify a point on the contingent liability against the possibility of future court proceedings. I note that in 2004-05 the amount was reduced on the basis of "data and legal advice". However, the figure is expected to go up in 2006 after the SPS has taken minimising actions. I would be interested to hear an explanation of how the SPS will manage that. Were the data or legal advice wrong or has not enough minimising action taken place? That stands out as an unanswered question.
Yes. I noticed that too. I invite Audit Scotland to comment on that.
The short answer is that we do not yet know why the chief executive of the SPS is forecasting that the contingent liability might go up again this year. We will pick that up through the work that will be done at the end of the financial year, on 31 March, when we expect to report to you again on the up-to-date position, following the section 22 reports that you have received in the past two years. The auditors are monitoring the position.
Thanks. Oh—Margaret Smith is attending after all. That is good.
Apologies, convener. I noted the start time of the meeting in my diary as 10 am.
Are there any further questions on the response from the Scottish Prison Service?
No.
We need to consider how we should react to this second response. I note Andrew Welsh's specific concern. From Audit Scotland's response, it seems that we will have a clearer picture in due course. Writing a letter to ask for the information will not necessarily gain us a great deal of time. If we let the matter lie for the moment, we can always take it up again once we know what the accounts for the coming year say.
There is no point in creating a dialogue with the SPS; it is really a factual matter that can be discovered in one way or another.
Thank you. We will note the response and leave it at that. We may revisit the matter once we know about the SPS accounts for 2005-06.
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