Audit Committee, 13 Sep 2005

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Official Report 154KB pdf

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National Galleries of Scotland

Agenda item 5, which is the final item before we go into private, is on the National Galleries of Scotland. Members have a copy of a letter from Mike Ewart of the Scottish Executive Education Department on our third report of 2005, on the National Galleries of Scotland. It is important that the committee and the wider Parliament recognise that, when we institute an inquiry and publish a report that actually says good things about an Executive department, that, too, is a success. We are not doing our job only when we beat up heads of department and give them a hard time.

A number of results came out of the inquiry into the National Galleries of Scotland, which arose out of a section 22 report, not least the fact that, by the time Sir Timothy Clifford came before us, most of the issues, if not all of them, had been resolved. We can fairly claim that the issues were resolved because we had instituted an inquiry. Furthermore, our report raised a number of questions about the purchase grant, to which the Education Department's response was that the purchase grant would now be deemed capital so that, in future, it cannot be vired to recurrent spending. We then asked whether that measure would apply to other institutions such as the National Museums of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland, to which the answer was yes.

We have had a number of positive results, which mean that the same set of circumstances will not pertain in other cultural institutions. It should be recognised that positive reports can be successful, as well as critical ones. The Scottish Executive's response, in tone and in deed, is to be welcomed.

As no members wish to comment, I ask whether there are any comments from Audit Scotland.

As you say, convener, the response is helpful and encouraging in its tone, content and structure.

With that, we can close consideration of that agenda item.

We now move into private for agenda items 6 and 7.

Meeting suspended until 11:12 and thereafter continued in private until 12:13.