25 January 2008
The Scottish government has asked the Accounts Commission to co-ordinate the scrutiny of council functions until longer-term changes are made to the regulatory regime.
In its response to Professor Lorne Crerar's report on the scrutiny of public bodies, the Scottish government says it will establish five short-term action groups. It will ask partners such as the Scottish Parliament, local government and Audit Scotland to take forward the report's recommendations, most of which have been accepted by ministers.
The Crerar report, published in September, called for radical changes to the 'overcrowded landscape' of scrutiny bodies in Scotland. It proposed a cut in the 40-plus scrutiny bodies. Eleven of these have been set up since devolution in 1999.
As an immediate step, Crerar suggested that ministers should immediately identify and appoint a body to co-ordinate the scrutiny of local government until longer-term changes are made.
According to the response, the Accounts Commission, which is responsible for the audit of councils, will be invited to undertake that role. It says: 'The Accounts Commission is best placed to act as a “gatekeeper” role…
'This will mean that all scrutiny relating to the corporate and strategic role of local government will have to be cleared by the Accounts Commission.'
The Accounts Commission is also to be asked to work with other scrutiny organisations to develop a corporate performance audit which absorbs other corporate level inspections 'to reduce the burden of local government.'
The Scottish government states: 'This should reduce significantly the present potential for duplication in the information gathered from local government and through that reduce the overall budget.'
The response says the government will support rolling out across the public sector the Best Value regime, which requires local authorities to make continuous improvements in their services.
PFjan2008
