Meeting of the Commission

Meeting date: Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Official Report 544KB pdf

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Spring Budget Revision 2017-18

Agenda item 2 is evidence on Audit Scotland’s spring budget revision for 2017-18. Members have a copy of the proposed spring budget revision in their meeting papers. I welcome to the meeting Ian Leitch, chair of the board of Audit Scotland. He is accompanied by Caroline Gardner, the Auditor General for Scotland; Diane McGiffen, chief operating officer; and Russell Frith, assistant auditor general. I understand that this is a big day for Russell Frith, because it is the last time that we will see him in front of us as he is retiring. I would like to take the opportunity to thank you, Russell, for all the support that you have given the commission over the years, and to wish you well in the retirement to come.

Thank you very much, chair. It has been mainly a pleasure. I think that I have missed only one, or possibly two, of the SCPA’s meetings since the commission started its work. I will miss it.

Just for the record, chair, this is Russell’s last official engagement. After the meeting concludes, he will not back to the office—he will go home, and he will be retired. This is his last outing. The board of Audit Scotland is extremely grateful to him for his assistance. On the other hand, I make a plea in mitigation in advance: since he is demob happy, we need to be careful what he says. [Laughter.]

We have no time constraints on today’s meeting, so we will make it worth his while to be here.

I start by asking the Auditor General to make a short introductory statement of perhaps a few minutes.

Thank you, chair.

As you know, our spring budget proposal requests £2.826 million to meet a non-cash pension accounting charge that will arise as a result of accounting adjustments in 2017-18. The request relates solely to pension adjustments. We are not able to plan for these due to the timing of the information that we receive from our actuaries and the Scottish Government has asked us to deal with them through the spring budget revision process. It is worth emphasising that these accounting adjustments are notional and do not generate cash movements. As you know, chair, the area tends to be complicated but we will do our best to answer questions that you and the commission may have. I will leave it there at this point.

Thank you. I will begin by looking at the individual amount that you have highlighted. Can you confirm you have had preliminary discussions with the Scottish Government to confirm that the previously agreed arrangements with Her Majesty’s Treasury remain in place? Have you advised the Scottish Government of the amount of Audit Scotland’s requirement?

The answer is yes to both questions, chair.

I will throw it open to members for any comments or questions on this issue. Members have none, so I ask whether they are content to agree the spring budget revision 2017-18.

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you. We will write to the Finance and Constitution Committee to inform it of our decision.