Public body watchdog to publish follow up report after 'unacceptable weaknesses' as quango
Scotland’s Auditor General found ‘unacceptable weaknesses’ in the governance of Historic Environment Scotland and will now issue a follow up report
Scotland’s public body watchdog is poised to publish a follow-up report tracking progress on “unacceptable weaknesses” in Historic Environment Scotland (HES), The Scotsman can reveal.
Last December, Scotland’s Auditor General set out a lengthy list of failings found at the heritage quango.
In a scathing Section 22 review, Stephen Boyle detailed issues with procurement, risk of fraud, data breaches and no formal register of interests for the Executive Leadership Team.
Mr Boyle was also highly critical of the Scottish Government’s failure to address issues at the scandal-hit quango.
On Thursday the auditor will publish the 25/26 annual audit report on HES plus a follow-up Section 22 report.
It is understood this Section 22 is an update on progress since the Auditor General Scotland reported last year and what work remains.
An Audit Scotland spokesman confirmed that the Auditor General expected to publish a follow-up Section 22 report on HES on November 12.
A spokeswoman for HES said financial management and governance actions have been taken following the recommendations from Audit Scotland.
She added that these include an Executive Leadership Team (ELT) register of interests and annual declaration-of-interest arrangements for all staff.
HES said the register has not been published and is not publicly available but this is “something we may consider in the future”.
In his Section 22 report, Mr Boyle said the alleged “toxic workplace culture” in HES must be fully investigated and addressed.
He said “strong controls” would have to be introduced to prevent the risk of fraud and demonstrate value for money.
Issues raised in the auditor’s report had all been highlighted in The Scotsman, which has broken a string of stories about unacceptable behaviour at the organisation.
These include that a senior staff member was sanctioned for twerking in front of actor Martin Compston.
HES receives millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money annually to preserve and manage some of the country’s most important historic buildings, including Edinburgh Castle and Skara Brae.
Auditors reported weaknesses in the financial management of electronic purchasing cards and hospitality.
They also found that the HES board was not provided with a paper to scrutinise the cancellation of a specialist archive storage project, which has already cost £2.9 million, with a further £0.5 million likely to be spent.
The Auditor General’s report adds that, together, these issues suggest a culture where organisational policies are not consistently applied or followed.
READ MORE:Historic Environment Scotland CEO Katerina Brown 'to step down' from role at crisis-hit quango
HES also operated without a Chief Executive or Accountable Officer for almost six months in 2025.
Mr Boyle said the Scottish Government should have appointed a substitute Accountable Officer.
Its then-CEO Katerina Brown was suspended from work after just months in the role and later stepped down.
She has been replaced by interim CEO Stephen Uphill.
Mr Uphill appeared before a Holyrood committee in September and was asked about progress being made the Martin Review, a culture review conducted by David Martin, former Dundee City Council chief executive.
Mr Uphill was pressed on how many of the 30 recommendations for change made in a report had been completed but was unable to tell MSPs how many had been implemented.
The Martin review “closely examined” concerns surrounding a “toxic culture” in HES, and found it had suffered from a “combination of unproductive relationships between the HES board and senior executives, a lack of joint visible leadership, and limited collective accountability”.
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