Author: Emma Woods

Accounts Commission Annual review 25/26: Animation transcript
In August 2025, we reported on how well Scotland is preparing for floods. It was the result of 18 months’ work. 
The first step was for our audit team to agree the three questions to answer:  
•	What impact do floods have and what’s in place to deal with them?  
•	How well do public bodies work together and with communities? 
•	How well placed and resourced are public bodies to build flood resilience? 
 Next, we gathered evidence:  
•	interviewing key people at councils, organisations that work with communities, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Scottish Water, the Scottish Government and others 
•	reviewing strategies and policies 
•	and analysing data.  
And looked at places with schemes that others could learn from. 
With the evidence analysed, we worked to understand what it told us. From that, we identified four key themes:  
•	collaboration 
•	funding
•	community engagement 
•	and equalities.
While our auditors drafted the report’s text, our designers turned data into understandable graphics, created the final document and built a webpage. 
Then we shared the report internally for review and externally for public bodies to check the facts.  
Once we had published the report, we gave media interviews, posted on social media, gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament, and met stakeholders to discuss our findings.  
Now, we’re monitoring what public bodies are doing with our recommendations, and evaluating the audit’s impact.