Scotland's colleges have seen improved attainment in the past year but face several financial challenges, and potential difficulties from a declining student population.

Audit Scotland's annual review of the college sector shows that its financial health is relatively stable, but has deteriorated. Overall income to colleges has reduced, the underlying deficit has increased to £8 million and colleges hold £11 million less cash than in 2014-15.

The legacy of an IT programme set up to deliver financial support to rural businesses still presents significant risks and costs for the Scottish Government.

Audit Scotland has reviewed the progress made in resolving serious issues with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Futures programme, created to enable the Scottish Government to provide financial support to farmers and rural businesses in line with European Commission (EC) reforms.

The Accounts Commission has published its annual report for 2017/18, reporting on the Commission's performance over the last year in auditing Scotland's 32 councils and carrying out various national reports and Best Value audits. You can read the annual report in full here.

Inverclyde Council has made significant improvements and needs to continue to build on those strengths for the future, says the Accounts Commission.

A report published today, the first of a new type of audit, charts progress since 2005 when the Commission found serious failings by the council in meeting its legal duty to demonstrate Best Value and continuous improvement.

Audit Scotland has published a new digital briefing to support public bodies embarking on ICT projects.

The public spending watchdog has summarised the issues identified in its previous work on ICT projects across the public sector, and used these to design a set of core principles for public bodies to follow. As well as case studies from previous Audit Scotland reports, the briefing also refers to examples from around the world to demonstrate that the issues that Scottish bodies have encountered are common across the globe.

Audit Scotland is off to a fantastic start with fundraising for its new corporate charity, which supports the lives of people dealing with a brain tumour and their families.

The public spending watchdog has raised around £700 for the Brain Tumour Charity since staff voted to make it the organisation’s corporate charity in late 2016.