Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3 – in the Scottish Parliament at 3:30 pm on 1 December 1999.
I call Mr McConnell to move amendment 5, with which we are debating amendment 22.
I will resist the temptation to respond to Andrew Wilson's previous remarks. Amendment 5 deals with tasks such as audits and value-for-money studies that the Auditor General, under the provisions of this bill, authorises others to do on his behalf. The provision is necessary to enable the staff of Audit Scotland to exercise the Auditor General's functions, if he so authorises, as if they were his own staff. The amendment merely ensures that he remains ultimately responsible for any such work.
Amendment 22 does exactly the same, where the Accounts Commission authorises others—Audit Scotland staff, for example—to exercise its functions.
I move amendment 5.
Amendment 5 agreed to.