Audit Committee, 07 Nov 2007

Meeting date: Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Official Report 96KB pdf

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“Sustainable waste management”

Agenda item 3 is consideration of the Auditor General for Scotland's report entitled "Sustainable waste management". Members have copies of responses that have been received on the report from the accountable officer and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

I was struck by a certain lack of urgency in the response from the Scottish Government's director general environment—the accountable officer. I wonder whether that is sustainable—I apologise for the pun. Given the timescale pressures that exist, urgent action is required. As with other things, the Scottish Government is predicating a great deal on the spending review. I wonder whether we need to postpone discussion of the item until we see the details of the spending review and then return to it. In that way, we could see whether the action that is proposed in the budget is commensurate with the scale of the challenge that we think we face.

I have read the letters from Richard Wakeford and COSLA, and there seems to be an element of buck passing going on. COSLA puts the blame firmly at the Government's door. It says that it understands that there is a problem and that if only the Government would give it more money, it would sort things out. However, the Government says that the problem is for the local authorities. There is a danger that the issue will fall between two stools. Your last comment, convener, was sensible. Until we know the details of the local government settlement, it is probably premature for us to follow up the responses.

The last paragraph of the letter that we received from Richard Wakeford states:

"The two most advanced groups of authorities (North and South Lanarkshire; and Edinburgh, Midlothian, West Lothian, East Lothian and Scottish Borders) are currently submitting more detailed Outline Business Cases."

I do not know enough about the matter, but if those authorities are more advanced and are coming up with outline business cases, should we pick up on that and ask them to explain what is happening? Is that good practice that ought to be followed elsewhere, which we should draw to the attention of other people? Or is the matter being dealt with by the Scottish Executive or COSLA?

The context of that paragraph makes it clear that the matter will probably be influenced by the spending review. We could, therefore, return to it after the spending review has been announced. If members agree, we can put our discussion on hold until we have received further details.

Members indicated agreement.

The final sentence of the third paragraph of the COSLA letter states:

"As Audit Scotland's report demonstrates, extra resources have been there, it has just not been fully utilised over the last few years."

Am I right in thinking that extra money was given by the then Scottish Executive to the local authorities but was not fully used, so there is still money sitting in an account somewhere?

I do not know. The letter seems to contradict itself. It says that

"extra resources have been there"

but then says:

"Given the resources, we can and will deliver."

Can the Auditor General or someone from his team clarify the situation?

I will try, convener. The original report made the point that significant extra resources had been made available by the Executive but that there had been delays in approving the business cases that were put together by authorities and groups of authorities. It stated that it is critical to speed up decision making and investment in the facilities if we are to meet the targets for 2013. I am not sure whether anyone on the team wants to add to that.

Okay. We have agreed to return to the item.