Scotland

As the devolved government for Scotland, the Scottish Executive has an exceptionally wide remit, managing an annual budget of more than £20 billion. Civil servants in its departments and agencies face a broad range of challenges in policy delivery and PricewaterhouseCoopers has been active in supporting them since the establishment of the Executive in 1999, and in working with the Scottish Office for many years before that.

Our multi-disciplinary teams have experience in translating government policy into results for a local and devolved agenda and expertise across sectors including transport, education, healthcare and policy and economics.

Potential issues

Governance and risk management

Developing and implementing effective governance and risk management procedures which take account of the organisation’s full sphere of operations and recognise the unique features of government in Scotland.

Achieving efficient government

The Scottish Executive wishes to drive change – its mandate, “Building a Better Scotland,” proposes five key improvement streams: procurement, asset management, shared services, streamlining bureaucracy and absence management.

Delivering the infrastructure plan

With Scotland’s infrastructure spending budgeted to rise over the next three years, effective delivery mechanisms, use of Public Private Partnerships and innovative funding techniques will all be required.

Generating sustainable development

Attracting people and businesses to stay in or move to Scotland and encouraging entrepreneurial start-ups while improving the living environment and meeting obligations on carbon emissions and waste recycling.

Modernising services

Improving service choice and quality through means a variety of means, including the Internet, email and contact centres.

Effective financial management

Demonstrating efficiency in the use of resources and ensuring that resources are used appropriately, with particular focus on front line service delivery.

PwC services

Assurance services

As a leading private sector provider to Audit Scotland, PwC understands the specific and differing needs of clients who are accountable for public funds and the accounting and funding frameworks used to monitor and control public expenditure. Our work aims to enable these clients to achieve efficient and effective use of funds made available to them.

Tax services

Our Scottish Government and Public Sector tax team can work with the Scottish Executive to help it meet its tax obligations in full in areas ranging from direct, indirect, property and employee/employer taxes, and to reduce costs through reward design, efficient tax and NI planning and tax risk management.

Financial advice

Advising on financial, commercial and partnering issues at the public/private interface, backed with a track record of successfully advising the Scottish Executive on many of its major transport and social infrastructure projects.

Performance improvement

Independent client support addressing policy delivery, procurement, customer relationship management, shared services, human resources, change management and associated technology and outsourcing consultancy, and programme management.

Financial management

Providing high quality financial support and advice, including deployment of financial and budget expertise, service turnaround expertise, leading treasury management capability, process improvement and financial strategy advice.