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I agree very much with Audrey Nicoll’s proposition. I share the concern that the retention of the energy profits levy risks further consequences for jobs and investment across Scotland’s energy sector over the coming weeks, months and years. As the First Minister set out to the Prime Minister last week, the energy industry will continue to face a threat unless it gets the support that it needs from the UK Government. The First Minister pressed that point very firmly. Such support must include an urgent transition from the EPL to a fairer fiscal mechanism, to help to ensure that there is a just transition from oil and gas to renewables that protects skills and delivers a future investment pipeline.

That is very much a rewriting of the history of the energy profits levy. It was the Conservatives who introduced the EPL, and we did not support its extension to 2029, which happened under the previous Conservative UK Government, or its further extension to 2030 and the increase in the rate that was confirmed at last year’s UK autumn budget. The Conservatives are fooling no one on this point.

The Scottish Government has introduced many measures that have put more money into people’s pockets, including the Scottish child payment, which has meant that Scotland is the only part of these islands with falling child poverty rates. We expect those with the broadest shoulders to pay a bit more; however, we will deliver a budget that will be fair to households, fund public services and continue our ambition to eradicate child poverty.

I absolutely agree with Keith Brown. The UK Government has made much of the very limited additional funding that has been provided, but that stretches across five years and, as Keith Brown pointed out, it is less than half the shortfall in funding as a result of the increased cost of employer national insurance contributions that is being faced by our public services, which is estimated to be about £2 billion across the five-year period.

I called for significant investment in public services and infrastructure, but the UK budget failed to deliver the scale of funding that we need. That means that we continue to face a very challenging outlook as we head into the Scottish budget.

We did not support the extension, under the previous Tory UK Government, of the energy profits levy until 2029, nor—[Interruption.]

The UK budget has failed to deliver for Scotland and will have detrimental effects for the North East Scotland region.

We are deeply disappointed and concerned that the UK Government has failed to reform the energy profits levy, ignoring our warnings and those from industry. That places jobs, investment and the energy transition at risk.

Distilleries in the north-east are crucial to the whisky industry, which contributes more than £5 billion in exports and supports more than 20,000 jobs. The disparity in alcohol duty has been ignored again, with the increase in rates resulting in an 18 per cent rise in just three years.

I share Jackie Dunbar’s concerns about the job losses that were announced at Harbour Energy in Aberdeen and about the approach that was taken to the reserved North Sea fiscal regime in the UK budget. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has not heeded the clear warnings from across the energy industry on the necessity of making the transition from the energy profits levy to a fairer and more stable regime as soon as possible. The impacts are being felt acutely in the north-east. They include the further job losses that Jackie Dunbar highlighted. Those impacts extend across the energy sector, including in relation to renewables and supply chains. We will, of course, continue to relay those concerns to the UK Government in the strongest possible terms.

I am not sure that members quite heard that, Presiding Officer. Let me say it again: we did not support either the extension of the levy to 2029 under the previous Tory UK Government or the further extension to 2030 and the increase in rate that were confirmed in last year’s UK autumn budget. That is having a devastating effect on the sector in North East Scotland and in the rest of Scotland. The levy needs to be scrapped, and it needs to be scrapped now.

The UK budget process has been chaotic and failed to deliver for Scotland. We needed the UK Government to prioritise investment in public services, support for jobs and industry in Scotland and serious action on energy bills. Instead, Scotland was again treated as an afterthought, with families left to pay the price.

Abolition of the two-child limit is, of course, welcome, but it is long overdue. This Government has already taken forward plans to mitigate it in Scotland.

We are looking carefully at what the UK budget means for Scotland and our budget, which will be published on 13 January.

For the purposes of rule 9.11 of standing orders, I advise the Parliament that His Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the Non-Domestic Rates (Liability for Unoccupied Properties) (Scotland) Bill, has consented to place his prerogative and interests, in so far as they are affected by the bill, at the disposal of the Parliament for the purposes of the bill.