Chamber and committees

Are you in a position to explain where the £4.5 million will come from?

Minister, part of the issue is that we are in a situation where there are in-year budget moves, and that is because of that kind of decision making.

I have a question about the letter that the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government wrote yesterday to the Finance and Public Administration Committee, about some of the cuts that may have to come. On mental health services, an £18.8 million reduction is earmarked. The letter says that that

“Saving includes mainstreaming elements of the Distress Brief Interventions programme”

and

“student mental health measures”.

Will you elaborate a bit more on what that means and how much of a cut it might mean for institutions and for students’ mental health?

So did you not put that up for coming out of the budget?

Do I have time to ask one more question, convener?

Thank you, convener, and good morning to the witnesses. Thank you for the information that you sent in advance, which is rightly candid and stark in places. It is much appreciated. I also thank you for working in an extremely difficult environment and keeping on keeping on, because the tertiary education sector, as you have all said, is crucial for Scotland.

My question is about the support, or lack of it, that you have had from the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council so far. I go to Shona Struthers first about some of the flexibilities that were given to colleges around credit thresholds. How helpful has that been, and do you need anything further?

Did you ask them why that was?

Did you look at whether that would have an impact on widening access?

What specifically would need to change to allow them to do that?

Sorry, Professor Gillespie, forgive me for interrupting you.

When you say that the difficulty comes when changes are made at the last minute, can you give us an example of what that could be?