Annual report 2022/23
Annual report and accounts 2022/23
Download report2022/23 in numbers
224 Accounts audited
8 National and local performance reports
15 Briefings, reports and blogs
26 Technical guides
479k Visitors to our website
£48.7bn Payments under Comptroller function
Chair's welcome
After two years of dealing with the biggest challenge to face public services in living memory, Scotland's public sector has faced both the emergence of new pressures and the exacerbation of existing ones.
The cost-of-living crisis and inflation have added to existing inequalities. Public services also face major challenges in addressing climate change, rising demand, and dealing with the longer-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Any one of these would be a major challenge to Scotland’s public services; their combined effect at a time of financial constraint is unprecedented.
Professor Alan Alexander OBE
Chair of the Audit Scotland Board
Accountable Officer’s report
In the face of the pressures on Scotland's public services, there have been three consistent themes over the past year: sustainability, reform and transparency.
Over the past year our audit work has told us that Scotland’s public services cannot continue in their current form if they are to meet the rising demands from inequalities, demographic change and economic pressures. While the questions about the sustainability of key services are not new, they are now urgent as Scotland strives to recover from the pandemic and cope with new and existing stresses.
Stephen Boyle
Accountable Officer and Auditor General for Scotland
Our year
Driving innovation and quality
Our new Innovation and Quality (I&Q) business group aims to ensure our work is innovative and of the highest quality.
I&Q was established during 2022/23 under the leadership of I&Q Executive Director Kenneth Oliver. With a remit of organisational development, digital audit and transformation, quality, and professional support and learning, the group works collaboratively with other parts of Audit Scotland to support quality and helping ensure we have the resources, skills and capacity we need, and in safeguarding staff health and wellbeing.
I&Q works with other business groups to ensure that Audit Scotland:
- deploys world-class, cutting-edge audit methodologies
- embeds a culture of innovation and continuous improvement
- develops and retains staff, and attracts high-calibre new recruits
- innovates to make audit delivery as efficient and impactful as possible, taking full advantage of new technologies.
I&Q also works to ensure that Audit Scotland is a leader in development and approach in the audit profession in the UK.
