Many people are waiting longer for housing benefit claims to be processed as services across Scotland’s councils face rising workloads, fewer staff and high sickness absence levels.

The Accounts Commission, the independent body that holds councils to account, says councils need to better manage staffing levels and workloads, and put in place contingency arrangements.

Our annual audit work found issues with some public bodies' gender pay gap reporting. We've used this analysis, as well as reviewing information from 20 listed public bodies, to report on good practice and highlight how public bodies can improve gender pay gap reporting. Read more about our work, findings and case studies. 

The body that investigates complaints about MSPs and councillors has made improvements to address serious failings at the organisation. However there remain significant challenges.

The Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland (the Commissioner's Office) assesses complaints about the conduct of MSPs, local authority councillors, lobbyists and members of public bodies, before determining which to investigate.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report today on HMRC’s administration of Scottish income tax, including the final calculation of Scottish revenues for the 2020/21 tax year.

Councils across Scotland faced significant financial challenges during 2021/22 and are now entering the most difficult budget setting context seen for many years. Increasingly difficult choices about spending priorities will need to be made.