Audit Scotland international strategy 2024-28 | Audit Scotland

Within our corporate plan we note how public audit can be a positive catalyst for changes in public services, and to driving improvement and innovation in the audit profession. Through our international work, we will be responsive, innovative and ambitious, using it to inform both our audit work and how we develop and improve Audit Scotland.

Our international strategy will play a key role in helping deliver our Insights driving innovation and improvement strategic priority, including:

• Horizon scanning: Exploring what the future might look like to understand uncertainties, consider the impact of these on our work and systematically investigating evidence about future trends.
• Stakeholder engagement: Developing international relationships to share our thinking, listen and learn, and gather ideas and feedback to fuel innovation and inform future planning.
• Public audit system leadership: Exploring the future direction of scrutiny, making external connections to lead the public audit system in Scotland and influence future audit approaches. We want to innovate and support to elevate our people, our organisation and public audit, improve quality and grow our reputation.

It will also play a key role in developing a culture for innovation, supporting us to learn, share ideas and think differently and be proactive in changing what we do and how we do it.

International stakeholder landscape

Our international work gives us the opportunity to influence and learn across a wide range of developments and challenges facing the global audit and accounting profession, including the changing regulatory landscape, the future auditor skillset, the volume and use of data and new technologies, and changes to climate change and sustainability reporting.

We recognise that Audit Scotland is not a supreme audit institution (SAI) and for many international bodies, membership and engagement is limited to SAIs. While we will build relationships with international stakeholders where appropriate, we will continue to foster relationships through the UK Public Audit Forum (PAF), with the National Audit Office (NAO), Audit Wales and the Northern Ireland Audit Office. The NAO is the SAI for the UK and our engagement with the PAF is a key part of our international influence.

Table 1 sets out the stakeholder landscape for our international work.