Seòmar agus comataidhean

I do not accept that there is nothing that the UK Government can do about, for example—

Yes, I can do that.

First, I put on record my apologies for being late and for keeping people waiting.

In line with the request from the FPA Committee, we provided comparative information in the budget document to show the latest approved budget position, which is the autumn budget revision. I am very happy to reflect on what more needs to be done.

There has been a recognition of the improvement in the position from last year, but there are still issues around in-year transfers. Some of that is quite difficult to resolve, because the issue will sit within a policy and the money will transfer in-year. We have baselined further funding, but if there are more improvements to be made, I am happy to work with the FPA Committee on what those should be.

You know my ambition on the fiscal framework. Previously, the scope for change was very limited, albeit that we got some adjustments. We absolutely want there to be a more ambitious review of the fiscal framework, but, despite our communication with the Treasury being better, I do not get the sense that it is keen to have a fundamental look at the framework. We will keep pursuing that issue as well as issues relating to migration policy and many of the other levers that will be really important to the Scottish economy, but that will require us to face in the same direction on those issues, and, so far, that has not been the case.

I have sympathy with the principle of the issue. We were concerned about the unintended consequences of crofts being captured, so it would need to be done carefully. The data issue remains problematic. I am happy to come back to you, Ross, with an update on where we have got to on that, if that would be helpful.

We are very conscious of that issue. The SFC analysis looked at some of that, but I suspect that it will do more. It looked at some behavioural changes, and we have been cognisant of that in relation to the Scottish child payment. We consider any research or evidence that suggests that there will be a cliff edge.

Bear in mind that the two-child cap is a penalty on families with more than two kids, which means that the universal credit system does not at the moment recognise the costs of children beyond two children. We believe that that is—

The tax strategy looked at whether there was scope, although not in the short term, to get additional powers, through agreement with the UK Government, on wealth taxes, for example. It also looked at working with the Scottish Land Commission on the issue of land—I know that that has been of interest to the committee previously—which could include consideration of a carbon land tax. However, that will not happen in the short term and will not raise revenue in this session of Parliament.

As I highlighted, our tax revenues are very strong but our issues include the complexities of the fiscal framework in relation to net gain compared with the rest of the UK and some of the constraints on things that we might want to do, such as boosting the economy through migration.

Earlier, I set out other levers that we are looking at for fiscal sustainability. I set out seven areas that we are exploring in order to contain costs and prioritise our funding. More detail on that will be set out in the fiscal sustainability plan, alongside the medium-term financial strategy, in the spring. We recognise that areas such as the workforce, reform, prioritisation of front-line services, the public sector landscape and support for back-room functions all offer opportunities to create the headroom to ensure that our resources are spent on our priorities.

Colleagues in various councils are doing their best to deliver services of the highest quality for their citizens. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills wanted to make sure that there is stability in teacher numbers, so we have agreed with COSLA that the £145 million funding uplift, plus the additional money for additional support needs, will enable stabilisation of teaching figures at 2023 levels. Some councils are already beyond that, and councils that are below that level will require to make the investment to bring numbers up to the standard.

I am not going to focus on one particular council’s issue. I will look at it, but you are giving me quite a lot of detail—

In some areas, a policy clearly sits in the policy area to which the money is allocated, but delivery will be through local government. For example, the free school meals policy sits with education and the direction of mental health support policy sits with health, but delivery of those policies is a matter for local government. We would not necessarily want 32 local authorities to decide what the policy around mental health interventions should be, because the expertise sits within health. Likewise, with free school meals policy, what is to be delivered in terms of the structure, the costings and the requirements sits with education, and local government, working in partnership, has agreed to deliver it. I could go through a list of other polices and rehearse that position.

Page 40 sets out the list of those policies. That is transparent.