Chamber and committees

Is there anything that could be improved?

The evidence session has been an informative and engaging start to the inquiry. I thank all the witnesses for your evidence and giving us your time. We intend to continue taking evidence in November before we hear from the Deputy First Minister at our meeting on 8 December. If witnesses would like to raise any further evidence with the committee, they can do so in writing, and the clerks would be happy to liaise with you on how to do that.

The committee’s next meeting will be on 10 November, when we will continue our inquiry by considering the drivers behind long-term illness in greater depth. That concludes the public part of our meeting.

That is helpful. I will bring in Tony Wilson.

That is all right.

Does Murdo Fraser want to come back in?

Thank you, Deputy First Minister, but I think that we are veering slightly off the budget scrutiny agenda.

That concludes our consideration of the agenda item. I thank the Deputy First Minister and his officials for their evidence today. The committee’s next meeting will be on Thursday 27 October, when we will consider a draft letter to the Scottish Government on our pre-budget scrutiny.

That concludes the public part of our meeting. We will now move into private session.

We intend to conclude the evidence session by 11 am, so members have approximately 10 minutes each to ask questions of the Deputy First Minister. We should be okay for time, but I apologise in advance because I might, if time runs on too far, have to interrupt members or witnesses in the interest of brevity.

I will begin the questions. Will you please provide some more detail on the scale of the on-going Covid-19 spend?

I am sorry, Mr Rowley—

I call Jim Fairlie.

We have a bit of time in hand, so I will take a few supplementaries.

Welcome back. We had some technical problems, but I hope that they have now been resolved. Can you hear me, Professor Morris?