Chamber and committees

All those elements would need to be taken account of in any proposition for any alternative system. Any system of local taxation will have to have a property element—for me, that is important. Trying to reach agreement on a system that addresses those issues will be tricky. There are lots of political challenges within that. I am keen—if there is the space in Parliament, for example—to create a bit of consensus on those matters, which would be helpful.

The fiscal framework is important to COSLA and local government. They want to see a reformed system that addresses some of the anomalies that we are all well aware of. That is a challenge. I am keen, as I said, to create a bit of consensus in that space, if possible.

As I have said, the Scottish Funding Council will have discussions with both sets of institutions about the number of places. The overall budget that has been set is the overall environment that the Scottish Funding Council will be operating in. That budget has already been set out. The figure is there, and that is the context within which the SFC will operate when it comes to those institutions. As I said, as was the case last year, the spring will be when those places will be agreed with both sets of institutions.

It is a very challenging financial environment. It would have been more challenging if the tax decisions that we have made had not been made. You have alluded to the fact that you are against the tax rises and you have said that you would want to cut the intermediate rate of tax, all of which would lead us to having £0.5 billion less money for universities, colleges, health and local government. You cannot talk only about the tax side of things; you have to also address the spend side of the budget in relation to the decisions that you are saying that you would take.

I might bring in Alison Cumming here, but this is not about taking that money and spending it elsewhere in the budget—the money has been constrained, so there is less money. The money is being profiled and deployed in a way that is required by the sector but which is also affordable. There is no point in £61 million sitting in a budget line that will not be spent or which will be underspent if it means that we have to reduce funding elsewhere to provide it in a particular area—

As I have said, we await the spring budget. Of course, the best way of addressing your point about new NHS facilities is for the chancellor to reverse the capital cut and not have £1.6 billion—

Steven Heddle was one of the commentators at that meeting, and despite the difficulties—do not get me wrong; the meetings can of course be robust—he pointed out that there are important areas that councils want to work with us on and that the Verity house agreement is really important to them.

I can look back to many budget discussions with local government and they do take a bit of a pattern. Local government will ask for X amount of money, there will be some difficult discussions, and then we land where we land. This year is difficult. We could say that it is difficult for the whole of the public sector because there is less money.

Well, I gave the global amount for higher and further education. If you are asking me whether the Scottish Funding Council has reached an agreement on places with universities and colleges, my understanding is that those discussions are on-going.

—in relation to the programme for international student assessment results.

There have been none.

I agree with that.

Of course.