Public body watchdog slams Scottish Government's 'lack of clarity' on leadership failure at quango
Scotland’s Auditor General Stephen Boyle gave evidence to Holyrood’s audit committee on his damning report into Historic Environment Scotland
Scotland's public body watchdog has criticised a "lack of clarity" around the government's failure to instate an interim chief executive at a scandal-hit quango.
Auditor General Stephen Boyle said an "intervention should have happened" at an earlier date in order to ensure oversight of Historic Environment Scotland (HES).
The heritage body, which receives £74 million of public money to look after around 300 historic sites, was the subject of a damning public audit in December.
READ MORE: Historic Environment Scotland manager twerked in front of Martin Compston at Rod Stewart gig
The watchdog found “unacceptable governance”, including weaknesses in procurement, personal data breaches and unclear processes for the distribution and use of complementary tickets to events at its venues.
New CEO Katerina Brown was suspended from her post but later returned as accountable officer to sign off the quango’s annual accounts.
Just prior to her temporary departure, former chair Hugh Hall left before the end of his term after the government announced an investigation into his conduct.
In response to questioning from committee chair Jamie Greene, the Scottish Liberal Democrats MSP, Mr Boyle said: “During 2025, Historic Environment Scotland it operated without a chief executive or accountable officer for almost six months of the year.
“While I recognise the complexity of this situation, I do believe that the Scottish Government should have appointed an accountable officer, a substitute accountable officer, to provide the necessary leadership and accountability.”
Mr Boyle added: “I think what we've seen is really a lack of clarity as to why the Scottish Government chose not to [appoint an interim CEO] notwithstanding the fact that there was uncertainty or a fluid environment in terms of how long the post holder would be absent.
“It's my view that clearer intervention ought to have happened at a far earlier date.
“Even the circumstances today, while the accountable officer is back at work they're not yet fully exercising all of the responsibilities of the chief executive or accountable officer.”
In a recent letter to Clare Adamson, the convenor of the culture committee, culture secretary Angus Robertson said the Scottish Government had “actively engaged” with the chair and board of HES.
Mr Robertson went on to say he had sought clarity on whether there were any imminent decisions that would require Accountable Officer approval.
The government’s Director of Culture, Kenneth Hogg, met with a prospective candidate for the interim role but, as it seemed likely Katerina Brown was ready to return to work, a replacement was not appointed.
It is understood that, while government ministers approve an appointment, it is the board’s responsibility to progress the appointment.
Mr Boyle was joined at committee by Lisa Duthie and Carol Grant, both audit directors.
They were also asked about the circumstances surrounding the fact HES was found to have 400 electronic purchasing cards for 1600 staff.
In the financial year 2024/25, some £1.9 million was spent on these credit cards despite there being no updated policy and procedure to ensure financial accountability.
The committee was told that, in one instance, a staff member had used a credit card to buy a replacement kitchen without any oversight.
Staff were found to have not obtained quotes or retained paperwork for purchases worth more than £1000 on these cards.
Ms Duthie said invoices quite often contained little detail about what purchases had been made.
She added that HES has recently improved its procurement processes.
“There has been a response to wider procurement weaknesses with a planned lowering of the procurement threshold, the involvement of the procurement team, procurement road shows planned over the next three months, and training plans, and also strengthening of the arrangements for the conflicts of interests as part of the procurement process.
“So we have seen a response from Historic Environment Scotland on those matters.”
The SNP’s Colin Beattie went on to ask the auditors about “eight personal data breaches between March and November, 2025”.
These includes five instances of personal HR details being leaked to The Scotsman.
Mr Boyle said he found it “quite significant” that these breaches were referred to the Scottish Government and the government took no action.
He also referred to a situation where board members were sending emails containing sensitive information to their personal email account.
Reform MSP Graham Simpson asked the Auditor General if he could explain how information from inside HES came to be leaked to the media and whether it was leaked deliberately.
Mr Boyle responded: “We don't know.
“I don't have insight into the origin of how media reporting on the organisation came about, and I don’t think any of us will be able to take a view on that until the Information Commissioner's Office investigation has concluded into what were the sources and how information came into the public domain.
“However, there is a lot of personal data sensitive HR matters, some of which are subject to HR investigations that remain live in the organisation, that has been released.”
Mr Simpson also raised concerns about the number of overseas trips undertaken by HES staff and asked why heritage staff were travelling overseas.
He was told that trips related to various heritage events, such as teaching traditional skills in North America, a conference in Hong Kong and a fact finding trip on mortar in Norway.
In response to the study of mortar, Mr Simpson said: “Is that a joke?”
Some foreign travel, the auditor’s report found, has been undertaken without authorisation.
Ms Duthie said: “This is obviously an area where robust controls are really important, both in terms of public perception, but also the value for money considerations.
“We identified non-compliance with the business travel policy, and that was particularly in relation to the authorisation of trips.
“We identified trips where Director and Chief Executive approval is required on the business case for foreign travel within the organisation, and we identified instances where this wasn't the case.”
She said the auditor had not been provided with a total amount of what had been spent on foreign trips.
The committee adjourned to discuss “next steps” for the quango in private.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We are aware of issues that have been raised and we are working closely with the organisation to resolve these.
“Following his appointment by the Culture Secretary, Sir Mark Jones’ priorities as chair are to ensure HES has the trust of the public and its partners.”
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.