By David Scott
28 January 2010
Scotland’s public spending watchdog is to be exempted from a list of bodies that could be abolished by ministers under sweeping powers to reform the public sector.
Finance Secretary John Swinney told the Scottish Parliament’s finance committee on January 26 that Audit Scotland would no longer be included in the lengthy list of public bodies that could be abolished, have their powers changed or be transferred to another organisation by an order signed by ministers.
Critics of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill claimed it would put at risk the independence and effectiveness of public bodies such as Audit Scotland.
However, Swinney told the MSPs that he was bringing forward a series of amendments designed ‘to enhance both the statutory and procedural safeguards’ affecting the order-making powers.
He said he had reached the view that Audit Scotland and the organisation that oversees its finances, the Scottish Commission for Public Audit, should be removed from the bodies listed.
He also announced that there would be safeguards to protect parliamentary commissioners and ombudsmen. Ministers, would be able to embark on a statutory consultation process affecting these bodies only if requested by the Parliament.
Swinney admitted that the Bill as drafted was not clear. He stressed: ‘There was not, and is not, a free-standing provision to abolish bodies at will.’ A body could be abolished only if it had become an ‘empty shell with no functions left to exercise.’
Scottish Tory finance spokesman Derek Brownlee said the changes were a ‘step in the right direction.’
