Minutes of the Leadership Board: 10 October 2025

Meeting held on 10 October 2025 in Conference Room 1, Ballater Street and Microsoft Teams  

Board members present:

John Logue, Crown Agent and Chief Executive (Chair)

Yvette Greener, Chief Operating Officer

Stephen McGowan, Deputy Crown Agent Serious Casework Group

Laura Buchan, Deputy Crown Agent Specialist Casework

Katrina Parkes, Deputy Crown Agent High Court

Sarah Carter, Director of Human Resources

Marlene Anderson, Director of Finance and Procurement

Jim Brisbane, Director of Strategy

Jonathan Shebioba, Director of Support Services

Gavin Anderson, Head of Business Management Local Court

Secretariat:

Frances Ross, Head of Corporate Governance

Matthew Beattie, Corporate Governance Manager

Christopher Hastings, Corporate Governance and Briefing Coordinator (Secretariat)

Apologies:

Andrew Laing, Deputy Crown Agent Local Court

Thomas Lindie, Head of Business Management, Serious Casework Group

Lindsey Miller, Deputy Crown Agent Operational Support

Keith Dargie, Head of Business Services

The Crown Agent and Chief Executive welcomed everyone to the Leadership Board meeting.

Apologies were issued for Andrew Laing, Thomas Lindie, Lindsey Miller and Keith Dargie. 

The Crown Agent and Chief Executive introduced the minutes of the previous meeting (LB1025 2.1). The Board advised that they were happy for the minutes to be published.

Discussion was then passed to the Corporate Governance Manager who introduced the Leadership Board Action Tracker (LB1025 2.2 and provided updates on open actions. They also noted Action 9 on the tracker will be closed after today's meeting as it relates to one of the items on the Agenda, Agenda item 6. 

The Head of Business Management Local Court gave a verbal account for Action 7. and advised that they will prepare a paper on this matter and circulate it to the Board as soon as possible. The Board were happy with the updates to the action tracker and the agreed actions.

Action: The Head of Business Management Local Court to circulate the report regarding petition case trends before the next Leadership Board Meeting. 

The Corporate Governance Manager introduced the Executive Board and OPC Open actions paper (LB1025 3.1) giving an update on the former Executive Board and OPC Actions. The board noted the suggestions to close off outstanding actions but decided that they would rather the actions remain open in order that they are tracked by the Leadership Board.

Action: The Corporate Governance Manager to add remaining open actions from Executive Board and OPC paper to Leadership Board action log. 

The Head of Corporate Governance introduced the Leadership Board Performance Report (LN1025 4.1)

The Director of Finance and Procurement started off noting the Finance section of the report has been re-ordered for clarity. The report discusses the 2026/27 Financial Year mentioning discussions are still on going with Scottish Government. In relation to the current financial year savings have been made and cost savings options are available which could be implemented in necessary in year.  The Board had general discussion over this and were happy with what was presented. 

The Head of Corporate Governance then discussed the Performance section of the report including August 2025 performance data. The board noted the performance metrics not on target and agreed to improve the narrative for these measures for the next meeting.

Action: For Functions to improve the narrative around stats not on target for future Performance Reports, providing updates which give an explanation as to why the stat is not on target, actions being taken to rectify, timeline for rectification.  

The Corporate Governance team to continue refining the Performance report. 

The Deputy Crown Agent High Court introduced the High Court Recovery Report (LB1025 5.1) to the meeting. The report highlights progress with clearing the backlog and outlines remaining challenges, including ensuring staff wellbeing as they deal with a high workload. The Leadership Board noted the preference for cases to be indicted before 30 November where possible. The Board held a discussion on what could be done to assist with the back log of cases and agreed to the reallocation of staff to address this priority.

Action: Local Court and Specialist to reallocate resources to High Court.

The Director of Support Services introduced the paper on the Designed for Success Transition Plan (LN1025 6.1), providing an update with progress to move to a new organisational function. The Director of Support Services noted the interdependencies with the ongoing review of management structures.

The Board agreed that the functional structure change should be expedited, and that the Chief Operating Officer should work with teams to progress this.

Action: Transition plan for functional structure changes to be confirmed (Chief Operating Officer)

The Deputy Crown Agent Specialist Casework introduced the ICO Audit paper (LB1025 7.1), outlining two recommendations from the recent ICO audit which have not been progressed. The recommendations related to quality assurance checks on digital device examinations and sensitive records.

The board agreed that the operational functions would work together to put a process in place and provide an update at the next meeting of the Leadership Board.

Action: Operational functions to put a quality assurance process in place for digital device examinations and sensitive records (Legal Directors).

The Chief Operating Officer provided an update regarding this agenda item. The Board had general discussion on the paper and were happy with its content.

The Crown Agent and Chief Executive moved on to any other business before finishing up the meeting. The Chief Operating Officer asked for the members of the Board to promote the completion of the People's Survey to their teams. With no other business the meeting came to an end.