Devolved Administrations
Each of the devolved government regions has its own distinctive
governance structures. Scotland has the greatest autonomy of the
three, with the recently elected majority Scottish Nationalist
government setting a clear policy direction, seeking an alternative
investment mechanism to PFI through the Scottish Futures Trust and
devolving greater budgetary and administrative responsibility to
local authorities. A recent review of the public sector landscape
in Scotland confirms the need for public sector organisations to
work more closely together and and consolidate existing service
delivery structures. A significant proportion of our current work
is with local authorities, assisting them to implement new
structures and processes to deliver services more effectively and
run their Significant Trading Operations (STOs) more like
businesses.
The Northern Ireland Assembly takes responsibility for devolved
matters and the region has been growing rapidly since devolution
with significant investment in infrastructure. In Northern Ireland,
central government bodies are currently the main drivers of
investment and projects, in tandem with the Strategic Investment
Board (SIB), which was established in 2003 as a company under
statute owned by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First
Minister.
Scotland and Northern Ireland are served by a joint professional
team of over 15 specialists across the three Grant Thornton offices
in Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow, making it one of the largest
teams of its kind in the devolved regions. Through these teams we
are able to deliver the full range of advisory services to public
sector clients and also have a number of sector specialists who
operate across the UK as part of the wider team, specifically in
education, transport, street-lighting, outsourcing, and energy,
environment & sustainability, including waste and renewables.
Our advisory practice is also supported by a thriving regional
practice able to provide locally-based financial services including
accounting, audit, tax and corporate finance services in all of
these offices.
Since devolution in 1997, the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG)
has developed policies which are distinct from those in England
across a number of areas. Notably WAG has encouraged collaborative
working between local authorities and the third sector and set the
bar higher in terms of waste composting and recycling targets for
Wales. The National Assembly recently gained powers to create laws
on environmental issues and has voted in favour of a referendum on
broader law-making powers.
Wales is served by a professional team of 10 specialists based
in Cardiff and Bristol. Grant Thornton works closely with WAG and
local authorities in Wales to support the delivery of their
environmental and sustainability agenda through strategic
investment in waste infrastructure. Wales has championed a
collaborative approach amongst local authorities creating a number
of procurement ‘hubs’. As a leading adviser in the sector, Grant
Thornton has advised WAG at programme level on the likely costs of
pan-Wales investment in waste infrastructure and is engaged by a
number of hubs on their PPP projects for residual waste treatment
and food waste treatment.