Expenditure information

Expenditure on overseas travel by Audit Scotland is mainly incurred through the sharing of our professional, technical and other audit-related expertise with other audit organisations and public-sector bodies from other countries. We endeavour to recover our costs whenever possible when sharing our experience and expertise.

The information on expenditure for international travel highlights those occasions when costs are incurred by Audit Scotland. Some or all of these costs may be recovered. Where this is the case, we will show this in the report. The information will be updated quarterly.

Audit Scotland is committed to spending the public money it receives properly, efficiently and effectively. Expenditure by Audit Scotland in relation to hospitality and entertainment is very small and is mostly incurred when we share our expertise with organisations from other countries.

Reports show the expenditure by Audit Scotland in relation to hospitality and entertainment. The information will be updated quarterly.

The Scottish Government defines ‘consultancy’ as including a wide range of professional services such as management consultancy, IT consultancy, financial consultancy, construction- and infrastructure-related consultancy, research and evaluation and policy development. Therefore the expenditure contained in this section reflects this definition of external consultancy.

Audit Scotland mainly uses external consultancy to undertake specific pieces of work that require expertise that is not readily available in-house.

Information will show the expenditure by Audit Scotland in relation to external consultancy. The information will be updated quarterly.

Audit Scotland helps the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission check that organisations spending public money use it properly, efficiently and effectively. We do this by carrying out performance studies and producing annual audit reports on public bodies. We cover over 200 public bodies and report on our work in public.

The following information on our expenditure in relation to public relations is a result of reporting our work in public. This will be updated yearly (around June).

The Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 requires Audit Scotland to publish a regular statement of payments made during the financial year which have a value in excess of £25,000. Audit Scotland plans to do this on a quarterly basis.

In addition Audit Scotland will aggregate payments below the £25,000 threshold and when aggregated payments to a supplier exceed £25,000, they are published below.