SNP’s ‘pressure’ on watchdog

SNP ministers are facing questions over why their officials forced a spending watchdog to water down a report.

Audit Scotland dropped a key statistic from its report on the college sector after civil servants challenged the purpose of including it.

The watchdog had initially intended to refer to a 41 per cent decline in the student headcount since 008 but dumped the reference when Scottish Government officials suggested a more ‘relevant reference point’ of 01 . In a letter to Auditor General Caroline Gardner official Paul Johnston referred to a meeting between the government, the Scottish Funding Council and Audit Scotland. He said: ‘My colleagues highlighted a small number of areas where it is felt the tone of the report could be more balanced.’

Now Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith has written to Education Secretary John Swinney to ask why changes were made. She said ministers were only allowed to make corrections when factual inaccuracies appeared in draft Audit Scotland documents.

But in this case she said the ‘undue pressure’ from the SNP Government was clearly intended to ‘tone down’ language which would have appeared critical of ministers’ performance.

An Audit Scotland spokesman said: ‘As with all our reports, any revisions before publication are as a result of factual inaccuracies or evidence-based decisions by the audit team. This process did not alter our independent conclusion the Scottish Government’s national learning activity target will be harder for colleges to meet in future as a result of demographic changes and changes in school leaver destinations.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Audit Scotland is responsible for the content of its reports.’