Officeholders

The Scottish Parliament is statutorily responsible for the nomination to Her Majesty the Queen for the appointment of a number of senior public appointments. The appointments made to date include:

• Robert Black as the Auditor General for Scotland. The role of the Auditor General is to check that public money is spent properly, efficiently and effectively. Audit Scotland provides the Auditor General with the services he needs to carry out his role. Further information can be found at http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/

• Professor Alice Brown as the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. The Ombudsman provides a 'one-stop-shop' for members of the public making complaints about public services. Further information can be found at  http://www.spso.org.uk/  

• Kevin Dunion as the Scottish Information Commissioner. The main role of the Information Commissioner is to promote observance by public authorities of the freedom of information legislation, by which "a person who requests information from a Scottish public authority is entitled to be given it by the authority". Further information can be found at http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/home/ScottishInformationCommissioner.asp

• Kathleen Marshall as the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Scotland. The post of Commissioner has been established to promote and safeguard the rights of children and young people. Further information can be found at http://www.sccyp.org.uk

• Karen Carlton as the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland. The role of the Commissioner is to monitor, report and advise on Ministerial appointments to public bodies in Scotland. http://www.publicappointments.org/

• Professor Alan Miller as the Chair of the Scottish Commission for Human Rights.  The Commission will promote widespread awareness, understanding of, and respect for human rights; review and recommend changes to any policies or practices of any Scottish public authorities and provide advice and guidance.

The appointment process for each post is conducted by a selection panel of Members set up under the Parliament’s Standing Orders. The panel is chaired by one of the Presiding Officers and the membership of each panel reflects the balance of political representation in the Parliament.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body is responsible for the nomination to Parliament for the appointment of the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. The present Commissioner is Dr Jim Dyer. The Commissioner investigates complaints that an MSP has broken the Code of Conduct for MSPs. He does this independently of Parliament and reports his findings to the Standards and Public Appointment Committee within rules laid down by Parliament in Standing Orders and the Code of Conduct. Further information can be found at http://www.spsc.co.uk.

In addition, the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body appoints the Members of the Scottish Commission for Human Rights.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body also sets the terms and conditions of appointment of each of the above mentioned officeholders and, with the exception of the Auditor General, also provides them with their annual budget.

Audit Scotland provides the services necessary for the Auditor General to undertake his role, and it is the role of the Scottish Commission for Public Audit - made up of Members of the Parliament - to examine Audit Scotland 's proposals for the use of resources and expenditure and report on them to the Parliament.