Consumer Scotland
Audit and Risk Committee Meeting
09 December 2025
Minute of Meeting
Present:
Nick Martin – Chair
James Walker – Member
Angela Morgan – Member
In attendance:
David Wilson – Chair, Consumer Scotland Board
Sam Ghibaldan – Chief Executive
Sue Bomphray – Director of Operations and Partnerships
Douglas White – Director of Policy and Advocacy
David Eiser – Director of Analysis, Research and Investigations
Ian Forbes – Finance and Accountancy Adviser
Iain Burns – Senior Internal Audit Manager, Scottish Government
Glen Bissett – Internal Audit Manager, Scottish Government
Rashid Zaman – Audit Manager, Deloitte LLP
Sally Sandground – Finance, Governance and Corporate Services Manager
Ifthakhar Eresh – Finance, Governance and Corporate Services Officer (minutes)
Apologies:
Noel Simba Jana – Director, Deloitte LLP
Agenda Item 1 – Welcome and Declarations of Interest.
1. The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made from both internal and external auditors.
2. There were no declarations of interest noted.
Agenda Item 2.1 – Minutes of Previous Meeting
3. The minutes of the previous meeting on 23 September 2025 were approved by the Committee.
Agenda Item 2.2 – Action Tracker
4. The Action Tracker had three actions in progress, and one marked as completed. The Director of Operations and Partnerships updated the committee on the progress of the ongoing items on action tracker.
ACTION 01: - Actions in the tracker to be numbered.
Agenda Item 3 – Director of Operations and Partnerships update
5. The Director of Operations and Partnerships gave a summary of the key items from the Director of Operations and Partnerships’ update report. She highlighted Oracle Fusion implementation costs, the Medium-Long Term Financial Strategy, the forecast outturn, the reallocation of budget and savings made.
6. The Committee noted ongoing discussion with Scottish Government regarding cost of the Oracle Fusion system beyond April 2026.
ACTION 02: - It was agreed that the savings report be integrated into the management accounts reporting.
Agenda Item 4 – Strategic Risk Register
7. The Director of Operations and Partnerships gave an update on the Strategic Risk Register and the Committee discussed the points raised in the report and noted various scenarios where risk had changed.
ACTION 03: – Target dates to be reviewed.
Agenda Item 5 – Management Accounts 2025-26
8. The Finance, Governance and Corporate Services Manager gave an update on the management accounts.
9. The Committee noted the financial information provided for Quarter 3 FY 2025-26.
Agenda Item 6 – Review Aggregated Audit Action Tracker
10. The Director of Operations and Partnerships updated the Committee on the items in the Aggregated Audit Action tracker and the management responses relating to both internal and external audit recommendations. Everything is in progress with no concerns raised.
Agenda Item 7 – Budget 2026-27
11. The Director of Operations and Partnerships gave a verbal update on the draft budget for financial year 2026-27. We expect our provisional allocation to be slightly lower than we had requested with larger budget challenges for 2027-28 and 2028-29.
12. The Director of Operations and Partnerships assured the committee that the process of engagement with the Scottish Government has been positive and we continue to work closely with them on the Public Service Reform agenda.
Agenda Item 8 – Risk Policy & Framework – Annual Review
13. The Director of Operations and Partnerships gave a brief overview of the Risk Policy & Framework with no significant changes in this version.
14. No other points were noted, and the Committee approved the Risk Policy & Framework.
Agenda Item 9 – External Audit
15. The Chair expressed disappointment that the Annual Report and Accounts had not been provided in time by the external auditors for the September Board meeting when they were scheduled to be approved.
16. The Audit Manager from Deloitte LLP expressed regret for last year’s audit shortcomings and advised that work had commenced on next year’s External Audit plan. There were no issues raised.
Agenda Item 10 – Internal Audit – Audit Progress report
17. The Senior Internal Audit Manager highlighted some of the wider directorate updates.
18. The Senior Internal Audit Manager provided an update on the Internal Audit Progress Report relating to the ongoing fieldwork on Grants and the Consumer Scotland Structure and Operating Model.
19. The Chair expressed his frustration on the internal audit progress, acknowledged the work being carried out and was assured there were no significant issues to report.
ACTION 04:– Internal Audit reports to be shared with the Committee when available.
Agenda Item 10 - AOB
20. No other business was raised.
21. The Chair of Consumer Scotland Board thanked the ARC Chair for all his work which helped shape the Audit and Risk Committee as this was his last Consumer Scotland Audit and Risk Committee meeting.
22. All the committee members also expressed gratitude to the departing ARC Chair and thanked him for all his hard work.
23. The ARC Chair thanked everyone for their participation and expressed his thanks for all the progress that had been made, then closed the meeting.
24. The date of the next meeting is Monday 16 March 2026 at 14:00 hrs online via Teams.