Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue provides an effective service with a clear strategic vision supported by good integrated risk management planning.

The Accounts Commission’s findings published today say the service has a strong approach to financial management but improvements need to be made in its management of its assets and equipment.

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue provides an effective service and makes good use of integrated risk management planning, with clear evidence of shifts in resources to better match community risks.

The Accounts Commission’s findings published today say the service shows innovation in working with other organisations, demonstrated by its highly effective Community Safety Partnership Unit which has helped improve the targeting of preventative work.

An Accounts Commission report published today calls for more focus on actively applying cost information to plan services, scrutinise performance and demonstrate value for money.

It says cost information is an important tool to look back at how budgets have been spent. But it can also be used more by councils to ensure high quality services meet current and future needs. This can sometimes be done simply through asking the right questions of officials and councils sharing best practice with each other.

The third National Scrutiny Plan for Local Government has been published today. Prepared by the main organisations responsible for scrutinising Scotland’s councils, the activity timetable shows strategic scrutiny work for 2012/13, looking at each council overall and its key services.

The plan is based on risk assessments of each council and agreed local and national priorities. It is not a measure of councils’ current performance.

Accounts Commission chair, John Baillie said,

An Audit Scotland report, The National Fraud Initiative in Scotland, sets out the results of the 2010/11 exercise, the fourth time the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) has been carried out in Scotland. The exercise involved 81 bodies, the largest and most diverse group yet, including councils, police forces, fire and rescue services, health boards, the Scottish Public Pension Agency and the Student Award Agency for Scotland.

Midlothian Council has made good progress improving services to deliver Best Value over the last four years. It still faces challenges but is now better placed to address them.

A new report by the Accounts Commission, reviews developments at the council since the first Best Value report in 2008. It says Midlothian’s overall performance is satisfactory and it has good prospects for future improvement.

An Audit Scotland report, Learning the lessons of public body mergers, looks at nine mergers that took place between 2008 and 2011 under the Scottish Government’s programme to reduce the number of national public sector bodies by 25 per cent. During this audit, Audit Scotland carried out detailed examinations of four mergers; the creation of the Care Inspectorate, Creative Scotland, Marine Scotland and Skills Development Scotland.

Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary performs strongly and provides a good service. Both the force and the police authority demonstrate most aspects of Best Value. The authority monitors the force effectively but should develop scrutiny of risks and value for money.

Central Scotland Police and its police authority, the Central Scotland Police Joint Board, perform well. Both demonstrate many aspects of Best Value but can make improvements in some areas in the transition to a single Scottish force.

'The Best Value Audit and Inspection: Central Scotland Police and Joint Police Board' provides an overview of how these bodies are meeting their duties to deliver Best Value in what they do. It is a joint report from the Accounts Commission and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland (HMICS).

Scotland has the potential to create a world class fire and rescue service but faces major challenges in doing so.

The report draws together the findings of the recent audits on each of the eight fire and rescue services on how well they use resources to deliver best value for the communities they protect. It says the single service, due to be established next year, will inherit many aspects of strong performance from the existing services. But there is still scope for significant improvements.