Chamber and committees

Thank you. You will be preparing a report on the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service next year. What operational demand and funding pressures will you look at as part of that report? For example, will you look at the changing nature of the fire service?

The changing nature of fires means that there has been a reduction in the number of house fires, but we see more fires caused by things such as vapes, which have affected older buildings in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Perhaps those are one-offs. We have also seen wildfires, which are related to climate change, over the summer in the Cairngorms. Will you consider those issues? Will you also consider the reduction in the number of high-reach appliances and the impact that that has on the fire service’s ability to provide that service to the public?

Thank you for that. I think that we have exhausted our questions.

Thank you very much for your attendance this morning. It has been very helpful and insightful to discuss the range of issues that you, and we, will be working on over the coming years.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to consider areas of interest to the committee, and we look forward to working with you on those issues in the year ahead.

10:35

Meeting continued in private until 10:52.

Agenda item 2 is consideration of the Auditor General for Scotland’s work programme. I welcome our witnesses: Stephen Boyle, the Auditor General for Scotland, and Alison Cumming, the executive director for performance, audit and best value at Audit Scotland. This morning’s meeting will inform our work for the year ahead, and we will have the opportunity to question the Auditor General and the executive director for performance, audit and best value on their work programme. I thank them for their attendance and for the reports that are before us.

I invite the Auditor General to make a short opening statement.

Good morning and welcome, everyone, to the second meeting in 2026 of the Public Audit Committee. Under agenda item 1, we are to decide whether to take agenda items 3 and 4 in private. Do we agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

You are concentrating on estate, assets and fleet. In order to operate all those, there needs to be an adequate workforce. Will you look at that as part of your audit of all those areas?

Thank you for your report, and thank you, too, for the confirmation that you intend to factor into your work programme the announcements made in the programme for government and the potential reforms that have been cited by the First Minister.

I am sure that we all appreciate the intentions behind the audit outcomes listed on page 3, particularly the third outcome on

“transparency around public spending and decision-making”,

and how that is critical to democracy. Indeed, in your opening remarks, you mentioned the importance of parliamentary scrutiny. In the previous session, the committee, as well as journalists and members of the public, commented on what it had identified as a lack of transparency from Government and public bodies, and the fact that auditors were not consistently provided with data and information in time for inclusion in audit reports was something that our predecessor committee discussed in its legacy report. From your perspective, what do the Government, public bodies and this committee need to do to ensure that data and information are given in full and on time in the interests of fulfilling this particular audit outcome?

I congratulate Dawn Black on her election as deputy convener. I look forward to working with you, Dawn.

Good morning. I welcome everyone to the first meeting in session 7 of the Public Audit Committee. It is an honour for me to have been elected by the Parliament as the committee’s convener. It is also a duty and a privilege.

I take this opportunity to welcome all members to the committee. Dawn Black, Miles Briggs, Alan Brown and David Kirkwood, I look forward to working with you all in the session ahead. I am aware that, for three of our members, this is the first Scottish Parliament committee that they have sat on, but I believe that, between us, we have a mixture of experience and fresh perspective that will serve us well.

Public bodies in Scotland spend nearly £70 billion a year. That is not the Government’s money or the Parliament’s money, but the people’s money. Our duty is to ensure that the people’s money is well spent in the interests of the people; we must ensure that it is spent properly and wisely. We are the guardians of taxpayers’ money.

Accountability means not only asking the difficult questions but ensuring that the work of the committee is accessible and understood by the public. Public bodies are accountable to us, and we expect full openness and transparency from them. We are accountable to the public, and they deserve robust and effective scrutiny from us on their behalf. That work starts today, and I look forward to working with you all to achieve that.

Under our first agenda item, each of us is asked to declare any interests that are relevant to the work of the committee. I have no relevant interests to declare.

That is excellent. Thank you, members.

Under agenda item 2, the committee is asked to choose a deputy convener. The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish National Party are eligible for nomination as deputy convener of this committee. I invite members to nominate a deputy convener.