THE Culture Secretary has refused to say if he has confidence in the board of Scotland's embattled heritage body.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has been embroiled in a number of controversies in recent months involving former leaders, leading to the chairman being replaced. Former chief executive Katerina Brown was suspended in June last year.
Mark Jones was appointed the new chairman at the end of last year and was tasked with getting the body back on track.
Issues at the organisation were first uncovered by The National when we revealed how operations director Craig Mearns had admitted to referring to visitors at Edinburgh Castle as "chocolates".
Speaking at a meeting of Holyrood’s Culture Committee on Thursday, Angus Robertson refused to say if he has confidence in the current board, pointing to an ongoing review by former Dundee City Council chief executive David Martin.
Under questioning from Scottish Labour MSP Neil Bibby, the Culture Secretary said he has “a very high degree of trust and respect for Sir Mark Jones”, but asked if he has confidence in the rest of the board, he added: “I am pleased that progress is being made in turning around the situation in Historic Environment Scotland.
“The board is playing its part, under new leadership, in doing that.
“So I think, under new leadership and following the internal investigations and then reporting, I am confident that Historic Environment Scotland, under new leadership, will be in a profoundly different place to where it was before.
“I am not going to sit here and generalise about the entire board, or the entire senior leadership team, or indeed the chief executive.”
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Pressed on the issue by Bibby, the Culture Secretary said he has “confidence the board is heading in the right direction under the chairmanship of Sir Mark Jones”.
Pushed again, Robertson said: “I have chosen my words very carefully – I have confidence in the leadership of HES, under the chairmanship of Sir Mark Jones, I have already taken the earliest opportunities to strengthen the board, to make sure they have board members who have experience that the previous board did not.”
The Culture Secretary added he did not want to “pre-judge” investigations ongoing into previous happenings at the body.
The minister appeared alongside senior Scottish Government official Kenneth Hogg, who told the committee he was the one who withheld an invitation to a board meeting from the previous chairman of HES for Robertson.
The Culture Secretary said in a statement to Holyrood in November he had not been made aware of the invitation, which had come at the height of controversies surrounding the heritage body.
Speaking to MSPs, Robertson said he would not have accepted the invitation as a result of the ongoing investigations going on at the body, but Hogg conceded he should have told the minister of the invitation but had not done so because he knew Robertson could not attend such a meeting.
SNP MSP and former government minister George Adam said it was “bizarre” the minister had not been informed.
“It just seemed very obvious to me that there was little point in considering a meeting which couldn’t possibly take place,” Hogg said.
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