Date: 21 May 2026

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—

• Stephen Herbert, Secretary, SCoSS; and
• Lisa Kinnear, Governance and Engagement Officer; SCoSS.

For agenda items 3 to 5—

• Julie McKinney, Scottish Government Sponsor Unit; and
• Munwar Hussain, Scottish Government Sponsor Unit.

Ed Pybus welcomed the attendees to the second Governance Sub-Committee meeting of 2026.

No interests were declared.

The minutes of the February 2026 meeting of the Governance Sub-Committee were agreed.

Julie McKinney and Munwar Hussain provided the Sub-Committee with an overview of their role within the Sponsor Unit and discussed how they support the Secretariat and Board with the Sub-Committee.

The Sub-Committee considered amendments made by the Scottish Government to the framework document on a page-by-page basis.

The Sub-Committee agreed the revised Framework document subject to clarification on two outstanding issues which it was agreed would be signed off by the Chair.

It was noted that the Framework document would then be provided for approval to Douglas McLaren, Senior Sponsor, Kenneth Hogg, Director General for Communities and External Affairs and Portfolio Accountable Officer for SCoSS and Shriley-Anne Sommerville, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Housing.

Stephen Herbert provided the Sub-Committee with an update on finance and governance. The update covered the end-year financial position for 2025-26, progress in establishing the external expert panel, the contract for the SCoSS website and the current position on the appointment process for two new Board members in January 2027.

The Governance Sub-Committee noted the finance and governance update.

Lisa Kinnear noted that the risk register was reviewed at the February Governance Sub-Committee meeting, at which it was agreed that a risk relating to the transition to Oracle Cloud be removed from the risk register as the transition had been completed.

The Governance Sub-Committee agreed the risk register.

Lisa Kinnear noted that no freedom of information requests has been received since the February meeting of the Sub-Committee.

No other business was discussed.

Meeting closed at 15:15