The SCPA welcomes the positive audit report that has been received from Alexander Sloan CA and the unmodified audit opinion that has been placed in Audit Scotland’s 2022-23 annual report and accounts. For completeness and for the Official Report, can you confirm that you have received all the necessary information and explanations that you require to form your opinion on the financial statements?

Can you confirm that you are content with the judgments that have been made by Audit Scotland and the disclosure of those in the annual audit and accounts?

Under agenda item 2, we will take evidence on Audit Scotland’s annual report and accounts for the year to 31 March 2023 and the auditor’s report on the accounts.

I welcome to the meeting our witnesses from Audit Scotland: Professor Alan Alexander is chair of the board; Stephen Boyle is the Auditor General for Scotland; Vicki Bibby is its chief operating officer; Martin Walker is the director of corporate support; and Stuart Dennis is the corporate finance manager.

I invite Professor Alexander and the Auditor General to make short introductory statements.

Thank you for that. I will now open up the session to questions from members.

As no other member has any questions, I thank David Jeffcoat and Jillian So for their evidence. We move into private session.

Good morning, and welcome to the first meeting in 2023 of the Scottish Commission for Public Audit.

We have received apologies from Colin Beattie. As deputy chair, I will chair the meeting in his absence.

The first item on the agenda is to decide whether to take agenda item 3 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

This Parliament was set up to improve the lives of people in Scotland by creating more highly skilled jobs, generating exciting new opportunities for young people and improving public services such as our NHS, our education system and our roads. We should be spending all our time on those key issues—the things that really matter to local people. We could be increasing the number of subjects that pupils get to experience in schools. We could be investing to improve vital roads such as the A77 and the A75. We could be overhauling the justice system so that it puts victims first. That is the Scotland that I want to build—one where victims get justice, schools provide more opportunities, motorists have good roads to travel on, vulnerable people get mental health treatment, islanders can get a ferry and everyone can access vital NHS treatment quickly.

However, nothing that the SNP is talking about today will help to build that better Scotland. It is not focused on those top priorities; it is focused only on its endless constitutional obsession. This debate is a total waste of everybody’s time and effort. It is a disgrace that the SNP has come here to talk about some fantasy constitution when people in Scotland desperately need better public services now. However, that shows what the SNP Government has become. It is not really a Government any more; it is nothing more than a constitutional campaign group. It now exists solely to create grievances with the UK Government, to divide people in Scotland and to promote division above everything else, no matter the cost.

The SNP Government has somehow convinced itself that a Minister for Independence is a necessity. It is now in the ridiculous position of insisting that it is good value for taxpayers to divert Government resources and a team of civil servants away from front-line issues.

Just look at what the SNP announced over the weekend. It has said that the next general election will be fought on the issue of independence and that every seat that it wins will count towards a mandate. Humza Yousaf has taken Nicola Sturgeon’s reckless referendum plan and put it on steroids. He has decided that the de facto referendum is not extreme enough. Now, the SNP genuinely seems to be claiming that it will try to break away from the United Kingdom if it gets one more vote than any other party in Scotland.

We already had a referendum in 2014; we already voted on that.

Normally, when we have debates in the chamber about things that actually matter, there is not a minister to be seen. Today, when we are talking about the constitution, everybody is here. Everybody is here to discuss the constitution instead of what matters. [Interruption.] I would much rather see the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health finding dentists.

The ministers are all here to speak about the constitution. I would much rather that the public health minister was looking to find out why we do not have any dentists and why my constituents cannot get dental appointments, and to find a solution to that. The social care minister should be looking at bed blocking and why people are stuck in hospital. If the community safety minister looked at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, I would be able to clear my inbox, which is absolutely jam-packed with emails about the service asking what is happening with the cuts.

I note that I can look forward to a future paper in the summer as part of the “Building a New Scotland” series. I would much rather see a paper on building the new national treatment centre at Carrick Glen in Ayr, which seems to have come to a standstill. Having the ability to have orthopaedic surgery there would greatly help my constituents.

People across Scotland, including many SNP supporters, can see that the Government is out of touch.