77
The Internal Audit Partnership provides independent assurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of Scottish Enterprise's framework of governance, risk management, and internal control. This Internal Audit opinion is based on internal audit activity conducted during the period, as well as being informed by meetings with senior management, observations at governance for a, and the Head of Audit's wider understanding of the control environment. Overall, sufficient assurance work has been carried out, in accordance with the Global Internal Audit Standards, to enable a reasonable conclusion to be formed on the adequacy and effectiveness of the internal control environment.
The Head of Audit is providing a ‘Moderate’ opinion on Scottish Enterprise for 2025-26. This opinion is based on reviews completed throughout the year, as well as consideration of other audit activity (for example, advisory work, real-time audits, and other assurance sources). Internal Audit reviewed areas aligned to strategic risk activity in the organisation as well as areas of core control, and the opinion reflects an overall assessment of these outputs.
Sixteen reviews were completed in total, supplemented by five relating to our membership of the EIS shared IT service. Overall, the work did not highlight significant weaknesses material to SE's overall governance, risk management, and internal control environment.
Recommendations have been agreed with management across all reviews to mitigate identified risks, with a follow-up process in place to ensure that internal audit recommendations are fully implemented. The status of agreed actions, including the high priority recommendations, has also been considered in reaching this opinion.
In reaching the opinion, Internal Audit considered SE's organisational context and changing risk profile. The mission-based approach is now operating as business-as-usual and several of the reviews focused in detail on large projects to assess alignment with SE's strategic objectives and project delivery capability. With ongoing constraints on public sector finances, work by the organisation to maximise impact has been reflected in audits of the new People Strategy, the project prioritisation pipeline, and digital project management.
This will continue into 2026-27, where the Internal Audit Plan includes reviews of Ambition 28, workforce planning, and the recent Customer Engagement strategy.
Internal Audit's work in 2025-26 has also demonstrated the flexibility of the risk-based Internal Audit Plan to respond to in-year developments. Most notably, Internal Audit's real-time advisory work on SE's programme of intervention at Grangemouth and the review of human rights due diligence in the defence sector have allowed Internal Audit to give timely advice and insight to emerging risks.