Audit Scotland

Official logo of Audit Scotland

Audit Scotland is an independent public body responsible for auditing most of Scotland's public organisations. These include the Scottish Government, local councils and NHS Scotland.

Auditing role

It audits about 200 organisations, including:

• 74 central government bodies (Scottish Government, NDPB's, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and others)
• 23 NHS bodies
• 32 local councils
• 25 further education colleges
• Scottish Water

History

Audit Scotland was established in 2000. It employees a staff of 250 people.

Its corporate HQ is on George Street, in Edinburgh's New Town. The role of Audit Scotland is to provide the Auditor General for Scotland and the Accounts Commission for Scotland with the services they need to carry out their duties. The core work is to carry out:

• financial audits to help ensure that public sector bodies adhere to the highest standards of financial management and governance
• performance audits to help ensure that these bodies achieve the best possible value for money.

Caroline Gardner is the Auditor General for Scotland and the accountable officer for Audit Scotland. She started her term of office in July 2012.

The work of Audit Scotland is governed by a board which meets around four times a year: the audits are managed by a management team. The Public Audit Committee of the Scottish Parliament examines Audit Scotland's proposals for the use of resources and expenditure, then reports to the Scottish Parliament.

See also

• Scottish budget

External links

• Official website
• BBC News Scotland - Public sector pension scheme fear