Date: 14 May 2025

Time: 14:00

Venue: MS Teams

Present—

•  Ed Pybus (Chair of Audit Sub-Committee)
• Judith Paterson (Audit Sub-Committee Member)
• Adam Bennett (Audit Sub-Committee Member)

In attendance—

• Grant Harrison, Auditor, Audit Scotland;
• Stephen Herbert, Secretary, SCoSS; and
• Lisa Kinnear, Governance and Engagement Officer; SCoSS.

Ed Pybus welcomed the attendees to the second Audit Sub-Committee meeting of 2025.

No interests were declared.

The Minutes of the February 2025 meeting of the Audit Sub-Committee were amended and agreed.

Stephen Herbert provided an update on performance and assurance.  In particular, he highlighted that recent staffing changes in the finance support to the Commission may impact on the delivery of the agreed timetable for the 2024-25 external audit being met.

Judith Paterson noted that commencement regulations putting into effect the changes to the Commission’s governance arising from the Social Security (Scotland) (Amendment) Act 2025 came into force on 10 May 2025.

The Audit Sub-Committee noted the performance and assurance update.

Stephen Herbert noted that the risk register had been reviewed by the Secretariat prior to the meeting and, as a consequence, that one new risk was proposed.  The proposed wording of the new risk was as follows—

“The departure of key finance staff could negatively impact the effective management of the Commission’s external audit, including adherence to the agreed timetable”.

The Audit Sub-Committee considered and agreed the new risk and revised risk register for consideration by the Board at the next Board meeting.

The Audit Sub-Committee noted that there had been no losses or special payments since the previous meeting in February.

No business was discussed.

Meeting closed at 14:32