The Scottish Government have confirmed Graham Sharp’s appointment as Chair of the Accounts Commission. Graham has been a member of the Accounts Commission since 1 October 2009. His four-year appointment as chair will run from 1 November 2017 until 31 October 2021.

The Auditor General has reported to the Scottish Parliament for a third consecutive year on NHS Tayside's progress with addressing significant financial difficulties, and the high risk that the board will not achieve financial balance in 2017/18.

NHS Tayside has a five-year transformation programme in place to address its financial challenges, and it plans to achieve financial balance by 2018/19. Caroline Gardner, Auditor General, has found that the board continued to experience significant financial issues in 2016/17.

The Auditor General has found that the Scottish Government produced a sound financial report for 2016/17 and managed its budget effectively, but she has underlined the need for further improvements as new financial powers are introduced.

In her annual review of the Scottish Government's Consolidated Accounts, Caroline Gardner highlights the Scottish Government's good record of financial management and reporting. Her independent audit opinion on the 2016/17 accounts is unqualified.

We welcome the Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee’s report and recommendations regarding the National Fraud Initiative (NFI), particularly highlighting its success in Scotland.

We will now carefully consider the report’s implications for our future role in the NFI.

Implementing equal pay remains a challenge for local government in Scotland more than a decade after the process was agreed, with around £750 million spent on settling claims so far and nearly 27,000 still outstanding.

The Accounts Commission has reviewed how effectively councils have implemented the Single Status Agreement (SSA), introduced in 1999 to harmonise the pay structures of different groups of council employees and to help eradicate historic inequalities.