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All those external factors in relation to where inflation will end up are concerning. We can make assumptions based on the best estimates of the key organisations that are projecting where inflation will land, but those estimates are not guaranteed and inflation is material to where pay lands, given the pay metrics.

That relates to critical infrastructure. We continue to support Scotland’s trunk road network by providing more than £1 billion for critical safety, adaptation, maintenance and improvement priorities. That will come in waves, depending on where investments are required. Because of the commitments that we have made on the A9 dualling programme, including Tomatin to Moy, the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful and the operation of the M8 Woodside viaduct, a number of projects require that investment. That will ebb and flow, depending on what the critical—

I anticipate that that can happen, although the delivery timeframes might need to reflect the challenging financial environment and the capital budget challenges. We will continue to work with SPT and Clyde Gateway on profiling the delivery of those projects, which remain important. We want to work with those bodies on how they can continue to deliver on the commitments.

The tax advisory group is more about the long-term position of our tax policies—about the strategy and the longer-term plan for our tax position. That involves looking beyond year-to-year budget horizons. The group was never intended to provide an input to each budget. Apart from anything else, the divergence of views around the table at the group would probably not land in a space of collective agreement. We have those divergent views to ensure rigour in and challenge to the strategic position of tax policy.

The performance framework remains important for priorities and delivering them. That is overlaid with the First Minister’s key missions, which home in on what is important and on how to focus and prioritise. Given that we have less to go around, how can we prioritise and focus on the things that really matter? That was the starting point to how we constructed the budget.

I do not have the figure at the top of my head but, yes, we have that information. Not all organisations are public bodies—universities are not public bodies, so I do not have insight into what reserves each of them has—but we know the level of reserves for public bodies and local government. That has increased, actually.

We will give an update on the capital delivery of the existing infrastructure at the end of January and the infrastructure investment plan will be in the spring to align with the spring budget. It will be important to see what that looks like before we introduce the IIP revisions as the budget could end up impacting positively or negatively on capital.

We base our figures on the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s analysis, which takes into account behavioural change. We recognise that we require more evidence, which is why I talked earlier about the work that HMRC is doing.

So far, the evidence that is in front of us is that there is no widespread concern about behavioural impact and that we still see net in-migration. However, the HMRC work is important in relation to being able to drill further into whether we can establish behavioural change in various income bands, which the HMRC research could show. Andrew Scott may wish to add something.

Again, those were difficult decisions but, with falling budgets, difficult decisions have to be made. To be blunt, we have had to prioritise front-line services—particularly our investment in the NHS—and that has meant some very difficult decisions elsewhere.

It is also against a backdrop of average earnings in Scotland now growing faster than in the UK. We have seen record income tax receipts, with Scottish income tax alone forecast to raise about £18.8 billion in 2024-25 to help fund services. There are a number of indicators that show, on productivity as well, that the Scottish economy is improving in its performance.

On where we are supporting investment specifically, it will not surprise you that we are looking at our investment in net zero, particularly. We are working with business investors to launch a new green industrial strategy. We have tried to ensure that our enterprise agencies will be focused on the key priorities. They will not be able to do everything, and they will need to do fewer things than before, but they will prioritise where they deliver their support services.

In an ideal world, with budgets not reducing, we would not have had to make any of those decisions, but we have had to. The prioritisation for all our public bodies will mean that they will not be able to do the range of things that we have previously asked them to do but will have to focus on key priorities.

First, there is a risk because the UK Government is counting international students in trying to reduce the number of people who are coming to the UK. I do not think that that is the right thing to do, and it will put pressure on our university sector.

As regards the position of students from more deprived backgrounds, increasing numbers of those students have been able to access university places. We want that trend to continue, and we want the attainment gap and opportunity gap to continue to be addressed. We will continue to pursue that as a clear policy objective.

The national care service is going to be an important reform that will lead to more consistency and improvement in the quality of care services. Having worked in the sector for many years, I can tell Liz Smith and others that consistency, and the requirement for consistent quality, is something that service users tell us is a priority. They are very keen that we make progress with the national care service.

The building blocks and infrastructure for the national care service are being put in place; we are working with local government to make the necessary progress. The service will take longer to establish, but it is a very important reform that will, in the longer term, deliver huge benefits for those who receive care services.

The investment in the team that is supporting the delivery of the service is a fraction of the cost of the delivery of social care. If we were not investing in a team to deliver it, questions would be asked around whether we were putting in place the necessary building blocks to ensure that the national care service will be delivered. We are doing that in order to ensure that the NCS is delivered successfully.