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I guess that that is recognition that, if there are fewer places for university students, that could pose a risk to those from less well-off backgrounds. It is therefore important that we maintain opportunities for access to university and the non-traditional routes that support students from less well-off backgrounds, in order to ensure that, through our policies, the risks that have been identified do not necessarily come to fruition.

Part of the challenge of having a hybrid system and incomplete devolution of tax powers is that anomalies will exist. The Fraser of Allander Institute said that addressing the specific point that you have made would require significant changes to the basic and intermediate rates. The process around that, let alone the impact, will be brought into sharp focus if further tax changes are made in the spring budget, for example. Changes at that very advanced point in our budget process inevitably impact on the tax and spend decisions of the Scottish Parliament.

To say that it is not an ideal system is probably the understatement of the year. It is far from ideal. Among all that complexity, we have tried to carve out a more progressive system, but there are areas that rub up against the UK system in a way that is not ideal. There is no getting away from that.

Some errors always occur, which is regrettable. Discussions have taken place with Clyde Gateway over the Christmas and new year period to ensure that it understands the budgetary position. The volume of information and the changes that are inevitably made can sometimes lead to errors such as that.

We will, of course, continue to consider such things. The difficulty is that, if I was sitting here with £350 million unallocated in a certain fund, I imagine that there would, understandably, be calls for that money to be deployed in order to avoid some difficult decisions. Given our constraints and lack of fiscal levers, we are in a tight fiscal position. Our preference would, of course, be for that position to change, so that we could build capacity in a reserve or fund for infrastructure investment or particular projects in future years. However, I cannot guarantee that that will be the case, given the outlook that you have described. Whether it is the current UK Government continuing with its fiscal priorities or an alternative Government sticking to similar spending plans, as looks likely, that does not bode well for the Scottish budget being anything other than fiscally tight for some time to come. However, in principle, I do not disagree with what you have said.

It is not us putting additional money into student support, albeit that that would not be a bad thing to do. It is because of that AME.

Given the current climate, it is challenging to disaggregate what the factors are.

Not so far.

No. I cannot account for journalists picking up on particular figures, and I cannot reconcile that with the budget figures. I am not clear where that figure has come from, to be honest.

I take your point. In an ideal world, where there would be no need to plug gaps in day-to-day spend, I can see the appeal of building a sovereign wealth fund with money from ScotWind. The Scottish Government raised £756 million through the ScotWind auction, which is not an unsubstantial amount of money. However, in order to sustain public services, we had no option but to use all the tools at our disposal, including the deployment of funding that has been made available from ScotWind revenues.

Had our budgets been in a different position, perhaps different decisions could have been made. However, the resource spending review allocates £310 million for use in 2023-24 and £350 million for use in 2024-25. There are requirements to bring forward some of that funding into 2023-24 because of the budgetary position. Without that, some of the difficult decisions that we would have had to make, beyond the ones that we already have made, would have been even more profound.

That we are having to utilise those resources in that way shows the limitations of our devolved fiscal powers. We absolutely recognise the importance of offshore wind, which is why the budget kick-starts the commitment of up to £500 million to anchor a new offshore wind supply chain in Scotland. We recognise that there is a potential longevity of benefit from those investments, but, because of the position of public finances, we have had very little option other than to utilise that money.

I do not foresee there being much change in how the delivery and business models that are used by housing associations and local authorities work. We are talking about how, in addition to that, we might be able to lever in private investment by using an attractive enough business model that involves a guaranteed revenue stream, which will de-risk to some extent, and that adds value to what our social housing partners deliver. That is what is being looked at.