CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY FRAME­WORK DOCUMENT

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex 1 23 June 2023 Page 1 of 18

Con­tents

• Intro­duc­tion — 2
• Pur­pose — 2
• Gov­ernance and Account­ab­il­ity — 3
  • The Board — 3
  • The Chief Exec­ut­ive — 5
  • The Account­able Officer — 6
  • The Scot­tish Min­is­ters — 7
  • SG Port­fo­lio Account­able Officer — 7
• Rela­tion­ship between Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and CNPA — 8
• NDPB staff man­age­ment respons­ib­il­it­ies — 9
  • Broad respons­ib­il­it­ies for NDPB staff — 9
  • Pay and con­di­tions of ser­vice — 10
  • Pen­sions, redund­ancy and com­pens­a­tion — 10
• Cor­por­ate and busi­ness plans — 11
• Annu­al report and accounts — 11
• Extern­al audit — 12
• Intern­al audit — 12
• Budget man­age­ment and del­eg­ated author­ity — 13
• Gov­ernance and Risk — 14
  • Risk man­age­ment — 14
  • Intern­al con­trol — 14
  • Budget and fin­ance — 15
• Remu­ner­a­tion — 17
• Bank­ing and cash man­age­ment — 17
• Annex A: Spe­cif­ic Del­eg­ated Fin­an­cial Author­it­ies — 18

Approved [date] Ver­sion [e.g. 2.1] Next Review As required, but before [date plus 3 years] Signed by [names as signatories]

Intro­duc­tion

1. This frame­work doc­u­ment is agreed between Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) and the Scot­tish Min­is­ters. It sum­mar­ises how Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment (SG) will work togeth­er, and the key roles and respons­ib­il­it­ies of:

• the Mem­bers of Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, inform­ally known as ​“the Board”
• the Chief Exec­ut­ive and Account­able Officer of Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority
• the Scot­tish Min­is­ters; and
• the Port­fo­lio Account­able Officer with­in the SG whose remit includes Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

While this doc­u­ment does not con­fer any leg­al powers or respons­ib­il­it­ies, it forms a key part of the account­ab­il­ity and gov­ernance frame­work and as a live doc­u­ment it should be reviewed by SG and CNPA reg­u­larly, and at least every 2 – 3 years. Any sig­ni­fic­ant changes will be agreed between the Board and the Scot­tish Ministers.

1. Any ques­tion regard­ing the inter­pret­a­tion of the doc­u­ment will be determ­ined by the SG after con­sulta­tion with CNPA. Legis­lat­ive pro­vi­sions take pre­ced­ence over any part of the document.

2. CNPA is not per­mit­ted to estab­lish any sub­si­di­ar­ies or enter into joint ven­tures without express approv­al from Scot­tish Ministers.

3. Cop­ies of the doc­u­ment will be pub­lished on the CNPA website.

Pur­pose

1. CNPA is estab­lished under the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 (here­after referred to as ​“the 2000 Act”), and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Des­ig­na­tion, Trans­ition­al and Con­sequen­tial Pro­vi­sions (Scot­land) Order 2003.

2. CNPA con­trib­utes to the achieve­ment of the Scot­tish Min­is­ters’ object­ives and pri­or­it­ies by align­ing its aims and object­ives with the Nation­al Per­form­ance Frame­work, Nation­al Strategy for Eco­nom­ic Trans­form­a­tion and Pro­gramme for Government.

• CNPA’s main stat­utory duties include:
  • under sec­tions 9 to 15 and Sched­ules 2 and 3 of the Nation­al Park (Scot­land) Act 2000;
  • car­ry­ing out ​“call-in” func­tions of a plan­ning author­ity under the Plan­ning Acts, includ­ing plan­ning and devel­op­ment management;
  • oper­ate the powers of an access author­ity under the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003;
  • Addi­tion­al func­tions and duties have also been giv­en to CNPA under legis­la­tion enacted since its form­a­tion. CNPA will ensure that these func­tions, duties and powers and any oth­ers sub­sequently assigned to it are per­formed in line with stat­utory require­ments. This includes respons­ib­il­it­ies under:
    • Part 4 of the Cli­mate Change (Scot­land) Act 2009
    • Part 3 of the Pub­lic Ser­vices Reform (Scot­land) Act 2010
    • Sec­tion 2A of the Nature Con­ser­va­tion (Scot­land) Act 2004 (as inser­ted by Part 5 of the Wild­life and Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment (Scot­land) Act 2011).
    • Parts 2, 3 and 5 of the Com­munity Empower­ment (Scot­land) Act 2015

1. CNPA’s pur­pose, stra­tegic aims and object­ives, as agreed by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters, are set out in the 2000 Act defin­ing the gen­er­al pur­pose for the CNPA which is to ensure the Nation­al Park aims are achieved in a coordin­ated way. These aims are to:

• Con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area;
• Pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area;
• Pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment (includ­ing enjoy­ment in the form of recre­ation) of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the public;
• Pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.

These aims are sup­por­ted by a num­ber of object­ives set out in the CNPA’s Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, Cor­por­ate and Annu­al Oper­a­tion­al Plans.

1. CNPA also has a duty to pre­pare and have regard to a Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) and to review the NPPP at least every five years and sub­mit it to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for approv­al. The Plan sets out the Board’s policy for man­aging the Nation­al Park, and co-ordin­at­ing the exer­cise of the Board’s func­tions in rela­tion to the Nation­al Park, and the func­tions of oth­er pub­lic bod­ies and office-hold­ers which affect the Nation­al Park. It also provides stra­tegic dir­ec­tion for the work of the Board, set­ting key out­comes and policies needed to deliv­er the aims of the Nation­al Park, identi­fy­ing part­ners who will help to deliv­er these out­comes and policies over the com­ing five year period.

Gov­ernance and Accountability

1. CNPA is estab­lished under the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 as a body cor­por­ate under the dir­ec­tion of a Board. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Des­ig­na­tion, Trans­ition­al and Con­sequen­tial Pro­vi­sions (Scot­land) Order 2003 (“the Des­ig­na­tion Order 2003”) (mod­i­fied in 2010) spe­cifies the indi­vidu­al powers and func­tions, includ­ing in rela­tion to plan­ning, the com­pos­i­tion of the Park Author­ity and the bound­ary of the Nation­al Park. The con­sti­tu­tion of CNPA is set out Sched­ule 1 of the 2000 Act and Art­icle 5 of the Des­ig­na­tion Order 2003. CNPA does not carry out its func­tions on behalf of the Crown.

2. Mem­ber­ship of CNPA, inform­ally known as the Board, includ­ing the Con­vener, con­sists of nine­teen mem­bers. Sev­en mem­bers are dir­ectly appoin­ted by Scot­tish Min­is­ters. in line with the Code of Prac­tice for Min­is­teri­al Pub­lic Appoint­ments in Scot­land. Five mem­bers are elec­ted by a poll (in accord­ance with para­graph 3(2) of sched­ule 1 to the 2000 Act). Sev­en mem­bers are appoin­ted by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters upon nom­in­a­tion by loc­al author­it­ies. Addi­tion­ally, four of the mem­bers must be loc­al mem­bers. Like all Non Depart­ment­al Pub­lic Body (NDPB) Boards in Scot­land, the CNPA Board oper­ates on the basis of col­lect­ive respons­ib­il­ity. Regard­less of the means by which mem­bers are appoin­ted to the Board, mem­bers’ over­all pur­pose indi­vidu­ally and col­lect­ively is to provide lead­er­ship, dir­ec­tion, sup­port and guid­ance to ensure that CNPA deliv­ers and is com­mit­ted to deliv­er­ing its func­tions effect­ively and effi­ciently and in accord­ance with the aims, policies and pri­or­it­ies of the Scot­tish Ministers.

3. The Board has over­all respons­ib­il­ity for the deliv­ery of the func­tions of CNPA, as set out at para­graphs 7, 8 and 9 above, in accord­ance with the aims, policies and pri­or­it­ies of the Scot­tish Min­is­ters. The Board has cor­por­ate respons­ib­il­ity, under the lead­er­ship of the Con­vener, to:

a. set stra­tegic plans to deliv­er the func­tions of CNPA, focus­ing on how the work of CNPA can most effect­ively con­trib­ute to achieve­ment of the out­comes in the Nation­al Per­form­ance Frame­work, the Pro­gramme for Gov­ern­ment and oth­er key nation­al strategies, such as, Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy, Cli­mate Change Plan, Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work, Nation­al Strategy for Eco­nom­ic Trans­form­a­tion etc in col­lab­or­a­tion with the SG and oth­er pub­lic bod­ies; b. reg­u­larly scru­tin­ise cur­rent and pro­jec­ted per­form­ance against the aims, object­ives and tar­gets set out in plans and take decisions on remedi­al action where required; c. ensure that effect­ive gov­ernance is estab­lished and main­tained, includ­ing ensur­ing that decision-tak­ing is open and trans­par­ent and, with sup­port from the Account­able Officer and the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee, ensure that key risks are iden­ti­fied and man­aged; d. approve the annu­al report and accounts and ensure these are provided to the Scot­tish Min­is­ters to be laid before the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment; e. pro­mote the effi­cient, eco­nom­ic and effect­ive use of resources con­sist­ent with the prin­ciples of Best Value, and reg­u­larly scru­tin­ise fin­an­cial per­form­ance and com­pli­ance with fin­an­cial guid­ance issued by the SG; f. pro­mote the well­being, learn­ing and devel­op­ment of staff, provide sup­port and chal­lenge to the Chief Exec­ut­ive on staff­ing mat­ters and ensure that CNPA meets the CNPA staff man­age­ment respons­ib­il­it­ies described in the sec­tion below.

1. The Con­vener will:

a. lead the Board, ensur­ing that all Board mem­bers have suit­able induc­tion to under­stand the role and their respons­ib­il­it­ies, that the skills and exper­i­ence of all Board Mem­bers are used effect­ively and that the Board under­takes reg­u­lar self assess­ment of its per­form­ance; b. ensure that the per­form­ance of each Board mem­ber is reviewed at least once per year and that the Board and/​or indi­vidu­al Board mem­bers under­take devel­op­ment activ­ity when required to ensure the effect­ive­ness of the Board; c. ensure that the Board reviews its effect­ive­ness annu­ally; d. ensure that a Code of Con­duct (aligned to the Mod­el Code of Con­duct for Board Mem­bers) is in place, that cor­por­ate actions are taken to imple­ment it as required and that Mem­bers under­stand their respons­ib­il­it­ies, using the guid­ance provided by the Stand­ards Com­mis­sion; e. work with the Port­fo­lio Account­able Officer or their delegate(s) and the Pub­lic Appoint­ments Team in SG on suc­ces­sion plan­ning for the Board, action neces­sary to fill vacan­cies as they arise, skills require­ments and pro­mot­ing diversity by encour­aging applic­a­tions from less rep­res­en­ted groups, includ­ing young­er people, people from minor­ity eth­nic back­grounds and people with disabilities.

1. Spe­cif­ic guid­ance on how the Con­vener and Board Mem­bers should dis­charge their duties will be provided in their appoint­ment let­ters and in On Board – A Guide for Mem­bers of Stat­utory Boards. Guid­ance on gov­ernance good prac­tice is avail­able in the Scot­tish Pub­lic Fin­ance Manu­al and from the spon­sor team, who may con­sult the SG Gov­ernance and Risk Team. A list of key aspects of gov­ernance to con­sider is included in the sec­tion on Gov­ernance and Risk below.

The Chief Executive

1. The Chief Exec­ut­ive is employed and appoin­ted by the Board, with the approv­al of the Scot­tish Min­is­ters; is the prin­cip­al adviser to the Board on the dis­charge of its func­tions; and is account­able to the Board. The Chief Exec­ut­ive role is to provide oper­a­tion­al lead­er­ship to staff work­ing for CNPA and to ensure that CNPA’s aims and object­ives are met, its func­tions are delivered, and its tar­gets are met through effect­ive and prop­erly con­trolled exec­ut­ive action.

2. The spe­cif­ic duties of the Chief Exec­ut­ive will be set out in a job descrip­tion, and annu­al object­ives will be agreed with the Con­vener and used in apprais­al of the Chief Executive’s performance.

3. In addi­tion to any oth­er spe­cif­ic duties, the Chief Exec­ut­ive will:

a. advise the Board on the dis­charge of its respons­ib­il­it­ies – as set out in this Frame­work Doc­u­ment, in the found­ing legis­la­tion and in any oth­er rel­ev­ant instruc­tions and guid­ance issued by or on behalf of the Scot­tish Min­is­ters; b. imple­ment or over­see imple­ment­a­tion of the decisions of the Board; c. work with the Board on pre­par­a­tion of the Cor­por­ate Plan, includ­ing liais­ing with the Seni­or Spon­sor and/​or Spon­sor Team on key points which need to be addressed and the timetable for pre­par­a­tion and review, and work with the Board to ensure that busi­ness plans are put in place to meet the Cor­por­ate Plan aims, object­ives and per­form­ance meas­ures; d. lead and man­age the staff of CNPA, ensur­ing their well­being, learn­ing and devel­op­ment are pri­or­it­ised, and ensur­ing that the CNPA staff man­age­ment respons­ib­il­it­ies set out in the sec­tion below are addressed; e. man­age the budget for CNPA in line with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Fin­ance guid­ance, policies and pro­ced­ures, includ­ing the Scot­tish Pub­lic Fin­ance Manu­al, and advise the Board on fin­an­cial implic­a­tions of all Board decisions, ensur­ing that appro­pri­ate fin­an­cial apprais­al and eval­u­ation tech­niques are fol­lowed (see the Apprais­al and Eval­u­ation sec­tion of the SPFM); f. agree with the Board and the Port­fo­lio AO or Seni­or Spon­sor what inform­a­tion is required to enable the Board and SG to scru­tin­ise the per­form­ance of CNPA and pro­gress against over­all stra­tegic and busi­ness plan aims and object­ives, and ensure that the agreed inform­a­tion is provided and that is both accur­ate and timely; g. the Chief Executive’s Exec­ut­ive Team will man­age the day-to-day rela­tion­ship with the Seni­or Spon­sor and/​or Spon­sor Team, with oth­er SG offi­cials who have an interest in the work of CNPA and oth­er key stake­hold­ers, includ­ing staff of oth­er pub­lic bodies.

1. In advising the Board, the Chief Exec­ut­ive will ensure that the key gov­ernance issues high­lighted in the sec­tion on Gov­ernance and Risk below are addressed.

The Account­able Officer

1. The Prin­cip­al Account­able Officer for the Scot­tish Admin­is­tra­tion will des­ig­nate a seni­or offi­cial in CNPA, usu­ally this will be the Chief Exec­ut­ive unless there are spe­cif­ic reas­ons not to, as the Account­able Officer. The Account­able Officer is per­son­ally respons­ible for the pro­pri­ety and reg­u­lar­ity of the pub­lic fin­ances of CNPA and ensur­ing that its resources are used eco­nom­ic­ally, effi­ciently and effect­ively, as required by sec­tion 15 of the Pub­lic Fin­ance and Account­ab­il­ity (Scot­land) Act 2000 and may be called to give evid­ence to the Pub­lic Audit Com­mit­tee of the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment. The respons­ib­il­it­ies of the Account­able Officer are set out in full in the Memor­andum to Account­able Officers for Oth­er Pub­lic Bod­ies in the Scot­tish Pub­lic Fin­ance Manual.

2. It is import­ant for the Con­vener and Board mem­bers to recog­nise that one aspect of these duties is the require­ment under sec­tion 15(8) of the Pub­lic Fin­ance and Account­ab­il­ity (Scot­land) Act 2000, where the Account­able Officer con­siders that any action they are required to take is not con­sist­ent with their Account­able Officer respons­ib­il­it­ies, they must obtain writ­ten author­ity from the Board and send a copy of the writ­ten author­ity to the Aud­it­or Gen­er­al for Scot­land as soon as pos­sible and ensure a copy is sent to the Clerk of the Pub­lic Audit Com­mit­tee. The Account­able Officer should con­sult the Port­fo­lio Account­able Officer before seek­ing writ­ten author­ity from the Board in these cir­cum­stances and should always noti­fy the Port­fo­lio Account­able Officer when such a writ­ten author­ity has been issued.

3. Where the duties of the Account­able Officer and the Chief Exec­ut­ive are not com­bined in one per­son, the Account­able Officer will work closely with the Chief Exec­ut­ive on gov­ernance, and in par­tic­u­lar to ensure that the key gov­ernance issues high­lighted in the sec­tion on Gov­ernance and Risk below are addressed.

The Scot­tish Ministers

1. The Scot­tish Min­is­ters hold the CNPA to account for the per­form­ance of CNPA and its use of resources. Min­is­ters are ulti­mately account­able to the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment for ensur­ing CNPA is dis­char­ging its duties effect­ively, although the Par­lia­ment will scru­tin­ise the per­form­ance of CNPA dir­ectly as it does with all pub­lic sec­tor bod­ies. The Scot­tish Min­is­ters are not dir­ectly respons­ible for the oper­a­tion of CNPA [and found­ing legis­la­tion pre­vents them from dir­ect­ing CNPA in rela­tion to spe­cif­ic stat­utory functions].

2. The Scot­tish Min­is­ters will:

a. agree the stra­tegic aims, object­ives and key tar­gets of CNPA as part of the cor­por­ate plan­ning pro­cess; b. agree the budget for CNPA, and secure the neces­sary Par­lia­ment­ary approv­al; c. approve the Code of Con­duct of the CNPA Board; d. approve pay remits or pro­pos­als and super­an­nu­ation arrange­ments for the staff, Chief Exec­ut­ive, Con­vener and Board mem­bers; e. Lay the accounts of the CNPA before the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment; f. car­ry­ing out respons­ib­il­it­ies spe­cified in the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 such as appoint­ments to CNPA’s board, approv­ing the terms and con­di­tions of board mem­bers, and approv­ing the appoint­ment of the chief exec­ut­ive; g. in accord­ance with sec­tions 16 and 18 of the 2000 Act, giv­ing dir­ec­tions of a gen­er­al or spe­cif­ic char­ac­ter as to the exer­cise of CNPA’s func­tions with which CNPA must com­ply, but before giv­ing such dir­ec­tions the Scot­tish Min­is­ters must con­sult the CNPA; h. mak­ing arrange­ments for any of their func­tions to be exer­cised on their behalf by CNPA. This does not affect the respons­ib­il­ity of the Scot­tish Min­is­ters for the exer­cise of their functions

SG Port­fo­lio Account­able Officer

1. The Prin­cip­al Account­able Officer for the Scot­tish Admin­is­tra­tion (the Per­man­ent Sec­ret­ary of the SG) has des­ig­nated the Dir­ect­or Gen­er­al for Net­Zero as the Port­fo­lio Account­able Officer (AO) for the SG port­fo­lio budget which will provide fund­ing for the CNPA.

2. The Port­fo­lio AO’s duties are to estab­lish a frame­work for the rela­tion­ship between SG and a pub­lic body, over­see the oper­a­tion of that frame­work, ensure the pub­lic appoint­ments to the body are made appro­pri­ately and ensure that appro­pri­ate assur­ance is provided on the per­form­ance and gov­ernance of the body. These activ­it­ies are known col­lect­ively as ​‘spon­sor­ship’. In prac­tice, the Port­fo­lio AO is likely to del­eg­ate some or all spon­sor­ship duties to a Dir­ect­or or Deputy Dir­ect­or as Seni­or Spon­sor and/​or to oth­er SG offi­cials in a ​‘Spon­sor Team’. The respons­ib­il­it­ies of a Port­fo­lio Account­able Officer are set out in detail in the Memor­andum to Account­able Officers for Parts of the Scot­tish Administration.

3. The Port­fo­lio AO will:

a. make sure the frame­work doc­u­ment is agreed between the Scot­tish Min­is­ters and CNPA, is reviewed reg­u­larly and over­see the oper­a­tion of the roles and respons­ib­il­it­ies set out in that doc­u­ment; b. ensure that fin­an­cial and oth­er man­age­ment con­trols being applied by CNPA are appro­pri­ate and suf­fi­cient to safe­guard pub­lic funds and con­form to the require­ments both of pro­pri­ety and of good fin­an­cial man­age­ment; c. in line with Code of Prac­tice for Min­is­teri­al Appoint­ments, ensure that pub­lic appoint­ments are made in good time and secure appro­pri­ate skills, exper­i­ence and diversity amongst Board mem­bers, work­ing with the Con­vener on suc­ces­sion plan­ning; that there is effect­ive induc­tion for new appointees; and ensure that there is reg­u­lar review and a form­al annu­al apprais­al of the per­form­ance of the Con­vener; d. sup­port reg­u­lar and effect­ive engage­ment between CNPA and the rel­ev­ant Scot­tish Minister(s); and e. make sure there is clear, doc­u­mented del­eg­a­tion of respons­ib­il­it­ies to a Seni­or Spon­sor and/​or Spon­sor Team and that the Board and seni­or offi­cials of CNPA are aware of these del­eg­ated responsibilities.

1. The Port­fo­lio AO remains per­son­ally answer­able to the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment for the effect­ive­ness of spon­sor­ship activity.

Rela­tion­ship between Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and CNPA

1. Stra­tegic engage­ment between the SG and CNPA is essen­tial in order that they work togeth­er as effect­ively as pos­sible to main­tain and improve pub­lic ser­vices and deliv­er improved out­comes. Spe­cif­ic gov­ernance and account­ab­il­ity roles are described in the sec­tion above, but more gen­er­ally, both the SG and CNPA will take all neces­sary steps to ensure that their rela­tion­ship is developed and sup­por­ted in line with the jointly agreed prin­ciples set out in the state­ment on ​‘Stra­tegic Engage­ment between the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and Scotland’s NDPBs’. This emphas­ises the need for cooper­a­tion and good com­mu­nic­a­tion, and par­tic­u­larly early warn­ing from either side about any emer­ging risk or issue with sig­ni­fic­ant implic­a­tions for the oper­a­tion or gov­ernance of CNPA.

2. The Spon­sor Team’s primary func­tion is to carry out the respons­ib­il­it­ies del­eg­ated to it by the Port­fo­lio AO, dir­ectly or via the Seni­or Spon­sor, as described above. In addi­tion to ensur­ing that the arrange­ments in this frame­work doc­u­ment oper­ate effect­ively, man­aging pub­lic appoint­ments and provid­ing assur­ance to the Port­fo­lio AO, the Spon­sor Team will usu­ally be the first point of con­tact for the body on any issue with SG. As part of the assur­ance they provide to the Port­fo­lio AO, they must ensure that key actions and decisions agreed are doc­u­mented and imple­men­ted. This includes ensur­ing that SG teams imple­ment any agreed actions.

3. Spe­cif­ic respons­ib­il­it­ies include:

• pro­por­tion­ate mon­it­or­ing of CNPA’s activ­it­ies through an adequate and timely flow of appro­pri­ate inform­a­tion, agreed with CNPA, on per­form­ance, budget­ing, con­trol and risk management;
• address­ing in a timely man­ner any sig­ni­fic­ant prob­lems arising in CNPA, alert­ing the Port­fo­lio Account­able Officer and the respons­ible Minister(s) where con­sidered appropriate;
• ensur­ing that the object­ives of CNPA and the risks to them are prop­erly and appro­pri­ately taken into account in the SG’s risk assess­ment and man­age­ment systems;
• inform­ing CNPA of rel­ev­ant SG policy in a timely manner.

CNPA staff man­age­ment responsibilities

Broad respons­ib­il­it­ies for CNPA staff

1. The Chief Exec­ut­ive, chal­lenged and sup­por­ted by the Board, has respons­ib­il­ity for the recruit­ment, reten­tion and motiv­a­tion of its staff. The broad respons­ib­il­it­ies toward staff are to ensure that:

• HR policies, prac­tices and sys­tems com­ply with employ­ment and equal­it­ies legis­la­tion, and stand­ards expec­ted of pub­lic sec­tor employers;
• the level and struc­ture of staff­ing, includ­ing pay and grad­ing, and staff num­bers, are appro­pri­ate to its func­tions and the require­ments of eco­nomy, effi­ciency and effect­ive­ness (sub­ject to the SG Pay Policy for Staff Pay Remits);
• the per­form­ance of staff at all levels is reg­u­larly appraised and per­form­ance man­age­ment sys­tems are reviewed from time to time;
• staff are encour­aged to acquire the appro­pri­ate pro­fes­sion­al, man­age­ment and oth­er expert­ise neces­sary to achieve the body’s objectives;
• prop­er con­sulta­tion with staff takes place on key issues affect­ing them, as appro­pri­ate, includ­ing work­ing in part­ner­ship with trade unions;
• effect­ive griev­ance and dis­cip­lin­ary pro­ced­ures are in place and ensures that staff know where to access and how to use;
• effect­ive whistle-blow­ing policy and pro­ced­ures con­sist­ent with the Pub­lic Interest Dis­clos­ure Act 1998 are in place and ensures that staff know where to access and how to use; and
• a code of con­duct for staff is in place.

Pay and con­di­tions of service

1. CNPA will com­ply with SG Pay Policy in rela­tion to staff and the Chief Exec­ut­ive. The Chief Exec­ut­ive will ensure that a pay remit, in line with the SG Pay Policy for Staff Pay Remits, is sub­mit­ted to the SG for approv­al in line with the timetable noti­fied and nego­ti­ate a pay set­tle­ment with­in the terms of the approved remit. This should nor­mally be done annu­ally, unless a multi-year deal has been agreed. Pay­ment of salar­ies should also com­ply with the Tax Plan­ning and Tax Avoid­ance sec­tion of the SPFM. Pro­pos­als on non-salary rewards will com­ply with the guid­ance in the Non-Salary Rewards sec­tion of the SPFM.

2. CNPA will also seek appro­pri­ate approv­al under the SG Pay Policy for Seni­or Appoint­ments for the chief executive’s remu­ner­a­tion pack­age pri­or to appoint­ment, annu­ally or when a new appoint­ment or change to the remu­ner­a­tion pack­age is being proposed.

Pen­sions, redund­ancy and compensation

1. Super­an­nu­ation arrange­ments for staff are sub­ject to the approv­al of the Scot­tish Min­is­ters. CNPA staff will nor­mally be eli­gible for a pen­sion provided by PCSPS. Staff may opt out of the occu­pa­tion­al pen­sion scheme provided, but the employ­ers’ con­tri­bu­tion to any per­son­al pen­sion arrange­ment, includ­ing stake­hold­er pen­sion, will nor­mally be lim­ited to the nation­al insur­ance rebate level. [Note that there is an excep­tion for CNPA’s cov­er­age by the PCSPS part­ner­ship arrange­ment, and for PCSPS by-ana­logy versions]

2. Any pro­pos­al by CNPA to move from exist­ing pen­sion arrange­ments, or to pay any redund­ancy or com­pens­a­tion for loss of office, requires the pri­or approv­al of the Scot­tish Min­is­ters. Pro­pos­als on com­pens­a­tion pay­ments will com­ply with the Set­tle­ment Agree­ments, Sev­er­ance, Early Retire­ment and Redund­ancy Terms sec­tion of the SPFM. This includes refer­ral to the Scot­tish Min­is­ters of any pro­posed sev­er­ance scheme (for example, a scheme for vol­un­tary exit), busi­ness case for a set­tle­ment agree­ment being con­sidered for an indi­vidu­al, or pro­pos­al to make any oth­er com­pens­a­tion pay­ment. In all instances, a body should engage with the Spon­sor Team pri­or to pro­ceed­ing with pro­posed sev­er­ance options, and pri­or to mak­ing any offer either orally or in writing.

Cor­por­ate and busi­ness plans

1. CNPA will pre­pare a draft stra­tegic or cor­por­ate plan every 3 to 5 years set­ting out its stra­tegic aims, object­ives and tar­gets over that peri­od, for con­sid­er­a­tion by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters. When a new plan is to be pre­pared, the Chief Exec­ut­ive or their del­eg­ate will liaise with the Spon­sor Team to agree the key points to be addressed and the timetable for pre­par­a­tion and review. The final, agreed ver­sion of the stra­tegic or cor­por­ate plan will be pub­lished on the CNPA website.

2. The cor­por­ate plan will include CNPA’s:

3. pur­pose and prin­cip­al aims;

4. con­tri­bu­tion to the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan includ­ing how it will help to achieve the nation­al out­comes set out in the Nation­al Per­form­ance Frame­work, the Pro­gramme for Gov­ern­ment and oth­er key nation­al strategies, such as, Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy, Cli­mate Change Plan, Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work, Nation­al Strategy for Eco­nom­ic Trans­form­a­tion etc in col­lab­or­a­tion with the SG and oth­er pub­lic bodies;

   • ana­lys­is of the envir­on­ment in which it operates;
   • key object­ives and asso­ci­ated key per­form­ance tar­gets for the peri­od of the plan, and the strategy for achiev­ing those objectives;
   • indic­at­ors against which its per­form­ance can be judged;
   • details of planned effi­cien­cies, describ­ing how bet­ter value for money will be achieved, includ­ing through col­lab­or­a­tion and use of shared ser­vices; and
   • oth­er key points agreed with the Spon­sor Team as described above.

5. The cor­por­ate plan will inform the devel­op­ment of a sep­ar­ate annu­al busi­ness plan for each fin­an­cial year, which will include key tar­gets and mile­stones for the year imme­di­ately ahead, aligned to the NPF, and be linked to budget­ing inform­a­tion so that, where pos­sible, resources alloc­ated to achieve spe­cif­ic object­ives can be iden­ti­fied. A copy of the busi­ness plan will be provided to the spon­sor unit pri­or to the start of the rel­ev­ant fin­an­cial year.

Annu­al report and accounts

1. As set out in sec­tion 26(3) to (5) of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000, CNPA will sub­mit a copy of an annu­al report of its activ­it­ies togeth­er with its audited accounts to the Scot­tish Min­is­ters after the end of each fin­an­cial year. The Scot­tish Min­is­ters must lay a copy of the report before the Par­lia­ment and pub­lish the report. The annu­al report and accounts will cov­er the activ­it­ies of any cor­por­ate, sub­si­di­ary or joint ven­tures under the con­trol of CNPA. It will com­ply with the Gov­ern­ment Fin­an­cial Report­ing Manu­al (FReM) and out­line the NDPB’s main activ­it­ies and per­form­ance against agreed object­ives and tar­gets for the pre­vi­ous fin­an­cial year. It is the respons­ib­il­ity of the Chief Exec­ut­ive, as Account­able Officer, to sign the accounts.

2. The accounts will be pre­pared in accord­ance with rel­ev­ant stat­utes and the spe­cif­ic accounts dir­ec­tion and oth­er rel­ev­ant guid­ance issued by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters. Any fin­an­cial object­ives or tar­gets set by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters should be repor­ted on in the accounts and will there­fore be with­in the scope of the audit.

3. The SG Spon­sor Team should receive a copy of the annu­al report for com­ment, and a copy of the draft accounts for inform­a­tion, by 30 Septem­ber. CNPA is respons­ible for the pub­lic­a­tion of the annu­al report and accounts after they have been laid by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters. Whilst the stat­utory dead­line for lay­ing and pub­lish­ing accounts audited by the AGS is 31 Decem­ber after the end of the rel­ev­ant fin­an­cial year, the Scot­tish Min­is­ters expect that accounts will be laid before the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment and pub­lished as early as possible.

Extern­al audit

1. The Aud­it­or Gen­er­al for Scot­land (AGS) audits, or appoints aud­it­ors to audit, CNPA’s annu­al accounts and passes them to the Scot­tish Min­is­ters who then lay them before the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment, togeth­er with the auditor’s report and any report pre­pared by the AGS. The AGS, or exam­iners appoin­ted by the AGS, may also carry out exam­in­a­tions into the eco­nomy, effi­ciency and effect­ive­ness with which the body has used its resources in dis­char­ging its func­tions and/​or carry out exam­in­a­tions into the arrange­ments made by CNPA to secure Best Value.

2. The AGS, or the AGS’s appoin­ted aud­it­ors or exam­iners, have a stat­utory right of access to doc­u­ments and inform­a­tion held by rel­ev­ant per­sons, includ­ing any con­tract­ors to or recip­i­ents of grants from CNPA. CNPA will ensure that this right of access to doc­u­ments and inform­a­tion is made clear in the terms of any con­tracts issued or con­di­tions of any grants awar­ded and will also use its best endeav­ours to secure access to any oth­er inform­a­tion or doc­u­ments required which are held by oth­er bodies.

Intern­al audit

1. CNPA will:

• estab­lish and main­tain arrange­ments for intern­al audit in accord­ance with the Pub­lic Sec­tor Intern­al Audit Stand­ards and the Intern­al Audit sec­tion of the SPFM;
• set up an Audit Com­mit­tee of its Board, in accord­ance with the Audit Com­mit­tees sec­tion of the SPFM, to advise both the board and the Account­able Officer;
• ensure that the Spon­sor Team and the Port­fo­lio AO/​Senior Spon­sor receive promptly after they are pro­duced or updated: the audit charter (or equi­val­ent agreed with the appoin­ted intern­al aud­it­ors), strategy, peri­od­ic audit plans and annu­al audit assur­ance report, includ­ing the Head of Intern­al Audit opin­ion on risk man­age­ment, con­trol and gov­ernance – and provide any oth­er rel­ev­ant audit reports as reques­ted by sponsors;
• keep records of, and pre­pare and for­ward promptly to the SG an annu­al report on fraud and theft suffered by CNPA and noti­fy the Port­fo­lio AO or Seni­or Spon­sor imme­di­ately of any unusu­al or major incidents.

1. The SG’s Intern­al Audit and Assur­ance Dir­ect­or­ate has an expect­a­tion of cooper­a­tion and access to rel­ev­ant mater­i­al when required, the para­met­ers for which would be set out in an engage­ment doc­u­ment before inform­a­tion was shared. CNPA should make it clear on their own Pri­vacy Notice that mater­i­al may be shared with SG’s Intern­al Audit and Assur­ance Dir­ect­or­ate in cer­tain circumstances

Budget man­age­ment and del­eg­ated authority

1. Each year the Spon­sor Team will send the Board a Budget Alloc­a­tion and Mon­it­or­ing let­ter, noti­fy­ing CNPA of the budget pro­vi­sion, any related mat­ters and details of the budget mon­it­or­ing inform­a­tion required. CNPA will com­ply with the format and tim­ing of the mon­it­or­ing inform­a­tion reques­ted and with any requests for fur­ther information.

2. The state­ment of budget­ary pro­vi­sion will set out the budget with­in the clas­si­fic­a­tions of resource Depart­ment­al Expendit­ure Lim­its (RDEL), cap­it­al DEL (CDEL) and Ring-fenced (non-cash) (RfDEL) – and, where applic­able, Annu­ally Man­aged Expendit­ure (AME). These cat­egor­ies are explained in Annu­al Budget Pro­cessing in the SPFM, and CNPA will not trans­fer budget­ary pro­vi­sion between the cat­egor­ies without the pri­or approv­al of the SG Fin­ance Dir­ect­or­ate, which should be sought via the Spon­sor Team. Trans­fers with­in the cat­egor­ies are at the dis­cre­tion of the Board or, sub­ject to del­eg­ated author­ity, the Chief Exec­ut­ive or rel­ev­ant seni­or man­ager, if these do not breach any oth­er con­straints, for instance the approved pay remit.

Where budget­ary pro­vi­sion includes pro­jec­ted income, includ­ing any income from dis­pos­al of non-cur­rent assets, the Chief Exec­ut­ive will ensure that the SG Fin­ance Dir­ect­or­ate and Spon­sor Team are made aware promptly of any fore­cast changes in income – usu­ally via the monthly budget mon­it­or­ing state­ment. The Scot­tish Min­is­ters expect­a­tion is that any short­fall in income will be off­set by a match­ing reduc­tion in gross expendit­ure, and pri­or approv­al from the SG Fin­ance Dir­ect­or­ate and the Spon­sor Team must be sought for any altern­at­ive arrange­ment. Sim­il­arly, if income is high­er than ori­gin­ally pro­jec­ted, this may only be used for addi­tion­al spend­ing or to meet pres­sures with the pri­or approv­al of the SG Fin­ance Dir­ect­or­ate and Spon­sor Team. Fail­ure to obtain pri­or approv­al for the use of excess income to fund addi­tion­al expendit­ure may res­ult in cor­res­pond­ing reduc­tions in budgets for the fol­low­ing fin­an­cial year. The only excep­tion is where the income is from gifts, bequests and dona­tions but this must be spent with­in the same fin­an­cial year as the receipt.

1. CNPA’s spe­cif­ic del­eg­ated fin­an­cial author­it­ies — as agreed in con­sulta­tion between the Board and the Scot­tish Min­is­ters — are set out in Annex A. The Account­able Officer will obtain the pri­or writ­ten approv­al from spon­sors and SG Fin­ance before enter­ing into any under­tak­ing to incur any expendit­ure that falls out­side these del­eg­a­tions, and before incur­ring expendit­ure for any pur­pose that is or might be con­sidered nov­el, con­ten­tious or reper­cuss­ive or which has or could have sig­ni­fic­ant future cost implications.

Gov­ernance and Risk

1. Guid­ance on gov­ernance require­ments is avail­able in sev­er­al doc­u­ments referred to earli­er in this frame­work document:

• the Scot­tish Pub­lic Fin­ance Manu­al (SPFM)
• the Audit and Assur­ance Com­mit­tee Handbook
• On Board – A Guide for Mem­bers of Stat­utory Boards

1. If in any doubt about a gov­ernance issue, the Con­vener or Chief Exec­ut­ive should con­sult the Seni­or Spon­sor or Spon­sor Team in the first instance, and spon­sors may in turn con­sult the SG Pub­lic Bod­ies Unit, the SG Gov­ernance and Risk Branch and/​or oth­er teams with rel­ev­ant expertise.

2. The Board and Chief Exec­ut­ive are advised to pay par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to guid­ance on the fol­low­ing issues.

Risk man­age­ment

1. CNPA must devel­op an approach to risk man­age­ment con­sist­ent with the Risk Man­age­ment sec­tion of the Scot­tish Pub­lic Fin­ance Manu­al and estab­lish report­ing and escal­a­tion arrange­ments with the Port­fo­lio AO or Seni­or Sponsor.

2. The Board should have a clear under­stand­ing of the key risks, threats and haz­ards it may face in the per­son­nel, accom­mod­a­tion and cyber domains, and take action to ensure appro­pri­ate organ­isa­tion­al resi­li­ence, in line with the guid­ance in: Hav­ing and Pro­mot­ing Busi­ness Resi­li­ence (part of the Pre­par­ing Scot­land suite of guid­ance) and the Pub­lic Sec­tor Cyber Resi­li­ence Framework.

Intern­al control

1. The Board should estab­lish clear intern­al del­eg­ated author­it­ies with the Chief Exec­ut­ive, who may in turn del­eg­ate respons­ib­il­it­ies to oth­er mem­bers of staff and estab­lish an assur­ance frame­work con­sist­ent with the intern­al con­trol frame­work in the SPFM.

2. Counter-fraud policies and prac­tices should be adop­ted to safe­guard against fraud, theft, bribery and cor­rup­tion — see the Fraud sec­tion of the SPFM.

3. Any major invest­ment pro­grammes or pro­jects under­taken should be sub­ject to the guid­ance in the Major Invest­ment Pro­jects sec­tion of the SPFM and in line with del­eg­ated author­it­ies. The Spon­sor Team must be kept informed of pro­gress on such pro­grammes and pro­jects and Min­is­ters must be aler­ted to any devel­op­ments that could under­mine their viab­il­ity. ICT invest­ment plans must be repor­ted to the SG’s Office of the Chief Inform­a­tion Officer.

4. CNPA must com­ply with the require­ments of the Free­dom of Inform­a­tion (Scot­land) Act 2002 and ensure that inform­a­tion is provided to mem­bers of the pub­lic in a spir­it of open­ness and trans­par­ency. CNPA must also register with Inform­a­tion Com­mis­sion­ers Office and ensure that it com­plies with the Data Pro­tec­tion Act 2018 and the Gen­er­al Data Pro­tec­tion Reg­u­la­tions, com­monly known as GDPR.

Budget and finance

1. Unless covered by a spe­cif­ic del­eg­ated author­ity, fin­an­cial invest­ments are not per­mit­ted without the pri­or approv­al of spon­sors and SG Fin­ance. This includes equity shares in ven­tures which fur­ther a body’s object­ives. Pub­lic bod­ies should not invest in any ven­ture of a spec­u­lat­ive nature.

2. Non-stand­ard tax man­age­ment arrange­ments should always be regarded as nov­el and/​or con­ten­tious and must there­fore be approved in advance by the Port­fo­lio AO and SG Fin­ance. Rel­ev­ant guid­ance is provided in the Tax Plan­ning and Tax Avoid­ance sec­tion of the SPFM. CNPA must com­ply with all rel­ev­ant rules on tax­a­tion, includ­ing VAT, recov­er­ing input tax where it is entitled to do so.

3. Optim­ising income (not includ­ing grant-in-aid) from all sources should be a pri­or­ity, and spon­sors should be kept informed about any sig­ni­fic­ant pro­jec­ted changes in income. Nov­el or con­ten­tious pro­pos­als for new sources of income or meth­ods of fun­drais­ing must be approved by spon­sors and SG Fin­ance. Fees or charges for any ser­vices sup­plied must be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Fees & Charges sec­tion of the SPFM.

4. Gifts, bequests or dona­tions received score as income and should be provided for in the agreed resource DEL and cap­it­al DEL budgets, but should not fund activ­it­ies or assets nor­mally covered by SG grant-in-aid, trad­ing or fee income, and con­flicts of interest must be con­sidered see the prin­ciples in the Gifts sec­tion of the SPFM. Note that this relates to gifts to the body — gifts to indi­vidu­als are covered in the Mod­el Code of Conduct.

5. Bor­row­ing can­not be used to increase CNPA’s spend­ing power. All bor­row­ing — exclud­ing agreed over­drafts — must be from the Scot­tish Min­is­ters in accord­ance with guid­ance in the Bor­row­ing, Lend­ing & Invest­ment sec­tion of the SPFM.

6. Any lend­ing must be in line with the guid­ance in the Bor­row­ing, Lend­ing & Invest­ment sec­tion of the SPFM on under­tak­ing due dili­gence and seek­ing to estab­lish a secur­ity. Unless covered by a spe­cif­ic del­eg­ated lim­it CNPA must not lend money, charge any asset, give any guar­an­tee or indem­nity or let­ter of com­fort, or incur any oth­er con­tin­gent liab­il­ity (as defined in the Con­tin­gent Liab­il­it­ies sec­tion of the SPFM), wheth­er or not in a leg­ally bind­ing form, without the pri­or approv­al of spon­sors, SG Fin­ance and where neces­sary the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tee of the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment. Guar­an­tees, indem­nit­ies and let­ters of com­fort of a stand­ard type giv­en in the nor­mal course of busi­ness are excluded from this requirement.

7. An accur­ate and up-to-date record of cur­rent and non-cur­rent assets should be main­tained, con­sist­ent with the Prop­erty: Acquis­i­tion, Dis­pos­al & Man­age­ment sec­tion of the SPFM. CNPA is also sub­ject to the SG Asset Man­age­ment Policy, includ­ing the require­ment for acquis­i­tion of a new lease, con­tinu­ation of an exist­ing lease, decision not to exer­cise a break option in a lease or pur­chase of prop­erty for accom­mod­a­tion / oper­a­tion­al pur­poses, to be approved in advance by Scot­tish Min­is­ters. The Prop­erty Con­trols Team should be con­sul­ted as early as pos­sible in this process.

8. Assets should be recor­ded on the bal­ance sheet at the appro­pri­ate valu­ation basis in accord­ance with the FReM. When an asset (includ­ing any invest­ment) suf­fers impair­ment, when there is sig­ni­fic­ant move­ment in exist­ing pro­vi­sions and/​or where a new pro­vi­sion needs to be cre­ated, this should be com­mu­nic­ated to spon­sors and SG Fin­ance as soon as pos­sible to determ­ine the implic­a­tions for the NDPB’s budget.

9. Any fund­ing for expendit­ure on assets by a third party should be sub­ject to appro­pri­ate arrange­ments to ensure that they are not dis­posed of without pri­or con­sent and that a due share of the pro­ceeds can be secured on dis­pos­al or when they cease to be used by the third party for the inten­ded pur­pose, in line with the Claw­back guid­ance in the SPFM.

10. Unless covered by a spe­cif­ic del­eg­ated author­ity, pri­or approv­al from spon­sors and SG Fin­ance is required before mak­ing gifts or spe­cial pay­ments or writ­ing off losses. Spe­cial pay­ments and losses are sub­ject the guid­ance in the Losses and Spe­cial Pay­ments sec­tion of the SPFM. Gifts by man­age­ment to staff are sub­ject to the guid­ance in the Non-Salary Rewards sec­tion of the SPFM.

11. Unless covered by a spe­cif­ic del­eg­ated author­ity CNPA must not enter into any fin­ance, prop­erty or accom­mod­a­tion related lease arrange­ment – includ­ing the exten­sion of an exist­ing lease or the non-exer­cise of a tenant’s lease break — without pri­or approv­al from spon­sors. Before entering/​con­tinu­ing such arrange­ments the NDPB must be able to demon­strate that the lease offers bet­ter value for money than pur­chase and that all options of shar­ing exist­ing pub­lic sec­tor space have been explored.

Non-prop­erty / accom­mod­a­tion related oper­at­ing leases are sub­ject to a spe­cif­ic del­eg­ated author­ity. There must be cap­it­al DEL pro­vi­sion in the budget alloc­a­tion for fin­ance leases and oth­er trans­ac­tions which are in sub­stance borrowing.

1. Pro­cure­ment policies should reflect rel­ev­ant guid­ance in the Pro­cure­ment sec­tion of the SPFM and any oth­er rel­ev­ant guid­ance issued by the SG’s Pro­cure­ment and Prop­erty Dir­ect­or­ate. The SG’s dir­ect­ory of SG Frame­work Agree­ments, is avail­able to sup­port organ­isa­tions but they should check the Frame­work Agreement’s ​‘buyer’s guide’ before pro­ceed­ing to ensure they