Senior Management Team Meeting - Minutes - 25 March 2026

Attendees

  • Alison Irvine (AI) – Chief Executive – (Chair)
  • Catherine Jess – Gibson (CJG) – Interim Director of FCS
  • Bettina Sizeland (BS) – Director of TIC
  • Andy Park (AP) – For Director of SPA
  • Richard Hadfield (RH) – For Director of Ferries and Ports
  • Mary Docherty (MD) – Director of BCAT
  • Morna Cannon (MC) – Director of ECS
  • Hugh Gillies (HG) – Director of Roads
  • Bill Reeve (BR) – Director of Rail Reform
  • Lawrence Shackman (LS) – Director of Infrastructure Projects
  • Hilary Cameron (HC) – For Director of Rail Delivery
  • David Swanson (DS) – Head of Corporate Services
  • Joanne Demarco (JD) – Head of Human Resources
  • Steven Wyllie (SW) Item 2-4 – Corporate Governance Manager
  • Andy Pope (AP) Item 2-4 – Head of Corporate Governance
  • Gillian Steele (GS) Item 2 & 9 – Head of Finance
  • David Climie (DC) – Non Executive Member
  • Michael Freeman (MF) Item 7 – FCS
  • Stephen Kelly (SK) Item 6 – FCS
  • Jason Connelly (JC) Item 3 – FCS
  • Fiona Dunn (FD) Item 3 – FCS
  • Lorna Clark (LC) – FCS

CEO Office

  • Mark Dunlop
  • Pam Yorke

Welcome

AI welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked that her thanks be passed on to all teams involved in the launch of the £2 bus fare cap in Highland and for work on ScotZEB.

Finance

GS provided an update on the February month‑end resource and capital position.

She discussed the 2026/27 resource position and the Path to Balance. Finance are continuing to work with Directorates to challenge forecast assumptions, and Directors were reminded to ensure they regularly challenge budgets with their senior leadership teams.

MD will review the forecasting methodology for Concessionary Travel.

GS outlined the process for completing Accountable Officer Templates (AOTs). Finance Business Partners hold a tracker, which must be updated before AOTs are submitted to the CEO for clearance. This tracker will be shared with Business Managers (BMs). Directors were encouraged to highlight the forthcoming guidance to their teams once circulated.

GD advised that Audit Scotland’s interim report raised no concerns ahead of the year‑end audit and thanked all teams for their support.

GS also confirmed that guidance on the AOT process during the election period will be issued shortly.

Risk

AP provided an update from the Risk Management Group to the SMT.

Sponsorship

FD discussed the reframing of the Sponsorship risk description, shifting the focus from a strategic risk to a governance‑based one—reflecting assurance and oversight arrangements for public bodies to ensure early identification of risks. The current risk score is 50, reduced from 75.

Health and Safety

JC outlined the updates to the October risk card and ongoing work to improve overall risk scores. AI thanked the team for the progress made.

Directors were reminded to regularly check that mandatory risk training is completed across their Directorates.

Corporate Dashboard

AP discussed the correspondence process for the election period and will circulate the correspondence handling guidance to BMs and Directors.

Correspondence Overview

SW provided an overview of correspondence statistics for TS, covering ORs, MRs and PQs. AI asked whether correspondence volumes have increased. SW will prepare a comparison report with the same period last year.

Training will be provided to staff on processing FOI requests from start to finish.

SW also shared a draft revised corporate scorecard aligned more closely with the DG scorecard. A covering note will accompany it, setting out the changes and highlighting focus areas for TS.

It was agreed that procurement updates to Corporate SMT will be reported quarterly.

FOI/EIR Performance

LC highlighted key points on FOI/EIR performance during 2025:

  • TS handled 642 requests, representing 10% of all SG cases.
  • Only six late requests and one late review were recorded.
  • 99% of requests were responded to on time (for the second consecutive year), and 97% of reviews were on time.
  • TS outperformed DGNZ and the wider SG.

CJG asked that thanks be passed to all teams for their contribution.

Any Other Business

No other business was raised.

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Published Date 25 Mar 2026 Type Topic