Finance Committee, 20 Jun 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 20, 2000

Official Report 77KB pdf

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Draft Agreement

We now move to item 2, which is the draft written agreement on the budget process between the committee and the Scottish Commission for Public Audit. Members will recall that we were in a similar position some months ago in relation to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. We reached agreement with the SPCB after returning a draft agreement to it because we thought that the wording in the penultimate paragraph was more cautious than we wished. The paragraph was changed.

The draft that has been circulated with members' papers is an amended version of the agreement for the SCPA, which is based on the original SPCB document, but it is not the final version. Members will note, therefore, that they have a new document in front of them. I understand that the only change that has been made is in paragraph 9. The effect of the change is to bring the SCPA agreement into line with the SPCB agreement. After members have had a chance to read that paragraph, I hope that we can move swiftly to endorsement of the agreement, unless members have any further comments.

Does Keith Raffan, as a member of the SCPA, wish to comment?

It does not really worry me, convener, but I draw members' attention to the second sentence of paragraph 9:

"Members of the SCPA may provide information and give evidence to the Committee."

If there were an oral evidence session, convener, you would, I presume, want Audit Scotland to be there as well. We in the SCPA are really just the intermediaries. It seems that if we were to try to get to the bottom of what Audit Scotland was up to regarding spending its budget, it would be equally appropriate to have that organisation's representatives at such an evidence session.

I see your point, Keith. Are you saying that you cannot envisage a situation in which the SCPA would give evidence to the committee without Audit Scotland being there?

I find that difficult to envisage. I do not think that the SCPA is as well informed as Audit Scotland. It is a bit like ministers coming to committees with officials. We would want Audit Scotland to attend such an evidence session so that we could refer questions to it. I am not sure that the SCPA would be able to answer detailed questions. The SCPA obviously has an overview and we take evidence from Audit Scotland—we have done so once already.

I do not want to be pernickety about the matter and I am not unhappy about it, but I would be worried about giving evidence to the committee on behalf of the SCPA. In some ways, members of the SCPA would give a general overview when it might be useful to have detailed questions asked of representatives of Audit Scotland.

I take Keith Raffan's point, but I am not sure whether we need to include that in the agreement. If we wanted to invite Audit Scotland, the committee would simply do so. I am certain that that organisation would be happy to comply.

On that basis, does the committee endorse the document?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you. The document will be among the agreements that we put to Parliament for its endorsement a week from tomorrow.