About the Inquiry
The Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee conducted its first ever piece of post-legislative scrutiny.
The Committee agreed to examine Section 97 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, which put the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) on a statutory footing, to consider whether any improvements could be made.
The remit for our post-legislative scrutiny was to consider whether -
- the policy intentions of putting the National Fraud Initiative in Scotland on a statutory basis have been realised;
- any further policy or legislative changes are required to improve the effectiveness of the National Fraud Initiative.
Background
On 29 September 2016, the Parliament agreed that the Public Audit Committee should also include post-legislative scrutiny within its remit.
The Session 4 Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments (SPPA) Committee, in its report on post-legislative scrutiny, stated that post-legislative scrutiny "will normally involve an assessment of the extent to which the policy intentions of a particular piece of legislation are being delivered and, if they are not wholly being delivered, the reasons for this."
The Parliament’s decision means that the Committee can now decide to consider previous Acts of the Scottish Parliament to determine whether they have achieved their intended purpose. This may mean examining a specific part of an Act rather than the legislation as a whole.
Oral evidence session - 1 June 2017
The Committee took evidence from Aberdeen City Council, Midlothian Council, Moray Council, South Lanarkshire Council and then from Audit Scotland, Cabinet Office, Northern Ireland Audit Office, Wales Audit Office. Please read the Official Report 1 June 2017 (519KB pdf)
Evidence
The Committee launched a call for written submissions with a deadline of Friday 31 March for written submissions from public bodies.
Correspondence
Report
The Committee published its report on 25 September 2017: