Main items and key issues - Resources Committee

The Committee considered the Provisional Year End Out turn (which is subject to external audit) and commended the work to deliver a balanced outturn versus budget.

Members were assured that learning from the previous year would be considered going forward and work to embed priority-based budgeting will further develop budget management controls.

One area of focus was Police Officer overtime. It was confirmed by the CFO that whilst an overspend is forecast, steps are being taken to address this which will see a reduction in the coming months.

The Committee was keen to have improved oversight and assurance that budgets are being managed in year as projects develop and welcomed the commitment that a paper will be tabled to explore this at a future meeting.

Given issues resulting from high inflation rates and expectations for 2023-24 pay award, there will be significant financial challenges which require to be managed as part of the annual budget process. A Period 1 Financial Monitoring report allowed early Committee scrutiny of the financial position.

Transformational Programme Benefits update. Members recognised the significant challenge of reporting benefits across a wide range of transformation activity, but concern was expressed that the current report does not give a comprehensive picture to enable robust oversight and assurance. It was agreed there is a need to refresh the reporting to ensure progress is understandable including articulating the impacts of investment decisions. Going forward, the Committee is keen to understand how the available benefits tracking data will be used across operational plans.

Bi-Annual Reporting
Financial regulations pre-approval reports. These showed the approvals/decisions made by Police Scotland under the Financial Regulations. Members welcomed the improved processes and heard the updates were working well. A review of the arrangements will be brought forward a year after implementation to review the effectiveness of the changes as well as providing assurances of the internal Police Scotland controls in place for approvals.
An overview of the Procurement Service work was provided with an area of particular interest for Members being the effort to develop and retain talent from within current staff.

Forensic Services Core Operating System Initial Business Case
The IBC was discussed at length and Members challenged a number of areas with a focus on ways the project could be de-risked.
A phased approach to the implementation was welcomed. Members asked that the Full Business case provide answers to a number of key areas (including timeline, training, impact on teams, funding impacts).

Change Requests/ End Project Reports
A common concern of the Members that was raised when considering change requests related to the central management of changes across all projects. There was also focus on oversight of how any changes to projects would impact on costs, benefits, timelines and how these impacts are being measured.
Members asked that End Project Reporting is expanded to give oversight of what has been completed and what, if anything was de-scoped from the project along with any impacts and risk (along with mitigations) that may result from decisions taken.

Chief Officer Relocation Annual Assurance Report
Report showed activity over the past 12 months. Members were assured the arrangements in place remained fit for purpose but that the policy would continue to be monitored.