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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.

There is an impact, particularly on welfare. Somewhere in my folder I have the figures for the mitigation of discretionary housing payments, for example, and of other welfare policies. The figures are substantial. I think that the most recent figure was £140 million—I will see whether we can find it. That money could otherwise be used for other policy areas, but we feel very strongly that, in the absence of any UK Government action, we should prioritise spend in order to tackle child poverty and to meet the statutory child poverty targets. We have taken action on the bedroom tax and on child poverty, but there are substantial costs. I am sure that we will come on to the two-child cap, which is a mitigation that will largely come out of the 2026-27 budget.

Are you talking about the 2026-27 budget in relation to the two-child cap?

First of all, the First Minister was quite right to say that. We have never shied away from independence being our key objective and from saying that we think that the constitutional arrangements of the country would be better served by decisions being made by the people who live and work here, in Scotland. I do not think that that is contentious.

The funding that is set out in the budget includes all the priorities that I have outlined in Parliament—the front-line services and so on. The mention of money in the BANS papers—the “Building a New Scotland” series—was by civil servants working in Angus Robertson’s team. They do many other things as well; those civil servants work on a number of other objectives, and they happened to produce the BANS series. Some conclusions were made around the culmination of the BANS series and the production thereafter, but there is not a line in the budget that says “Spend on independence.”

The figure is above inflation, which I hope is recognised. In the case of many of the pay negotiations that I have been involved in over the years, the actual number is one part of the pay policy equation, and it is often part of a package of reforms that include doing things differently and other non-pay benefits. For example, for the civil service, the configuration of the working week was of most importance, and that has a value. Other parts of the public sector will have different priorities at different times.

The run-up to an election year can bring its own flavour, but our pay policy is slightly higher than that of the UK Government, which has landed on 2.8 per cent. What the pay review bodies come up with remains to be seen. That was very much a driver last year, and I hope that they have taken cognisance of the evidence of progress to date. On average, Scottish pay rates are in excess of those in the rest of the UK, and I hope that that starting point and the investment that has already been made will be recognised by the staff side and unions.

Okay.

The in-year transfers will mainly be to local authorities. Ellen—have you got the figures for the overall size of them?

No, it is not a figure that I recognise, but I will cover that issue in the reply that I give to the committee on the figures and the increase. I do not want to get into the details about Dundee, but I do not think that Dundee is representative of some of the issues in the wider sector. I am not saying that there are not issues in the wider sector, but, without getting into all the detail, there are particular issues in Dundee that are in a slightly different area. You will know about all those issues as well as I do.

I do not recognise the figure, but I will cover that point in the letter to the committee.

I am not going to try to dodge your question. I will take it away and make sure that the part that the Scottish Government can play is positive. The point that the convener made about the economic value of the university sector is a real one, so I will take your question away and get back on it.

The financial sustainability of our public services, including our universities, is absolutely critical. They are different in terms of what their issues are, their underlying resilience and where the headwinds come from. The universities will be impacted, particularly by the international students issue, and that must be resolved. I do not think that it can stand, and I really hope that it does not. I think that the UK Government’s inclination, coming in afresh, is to look again at the issue, but it is concerned about the whole debate on immigration numbers.