Publication: Scottish National Investment Bank - audit scope

The Scottish National Investment Bank (the Bank) was launched by the Scottish Government in November 2020. It invests public money in businesses and projects that help address persistent, long-term challenges facing Scotland. The Bank has been set three missions by the Scottish Government to guide its activities. These missions focus on addressing the climate crisis, transforming communities, and scaling up innovation and technology.

The Bank makes long-term capital investments, not only for a financial return but to also create positive and sustained economic, social and environmental improvements. The Scottish Government provides the Bank with capital funding and has committed to an initial £2 billion of funding over the Bank’s first 10 years in operation.

This audit will assess the clarity of the Bank’s purpose and how well it is establishing itself to deliver on this; the effectiveness of the Scottish Government’s oversight arrangements of the Bank and the Bank’s governance, corporate risk management and operational arrangements; and examine how the Bank is measuring its impact and what progress has it made to date in delivering its missions.

The audit will make recommendations to the Bank and the Scottish Government to address areas for improvement and highlight any areas of good practice to support improvement in other public bodies.