Chamber and committees

There has never been any divergence, has there? Has anyone looked at what the cost of shipping a tonne of waste 100 miles is, for example? A rate of around £3 a tonne for inert waste does not seem very much. Is it likely that someone would ship a tonne of waste from Edinburgh to Newcastle or wherever to save £3?

Would it not be better just to say that, rather than saying it is for “ongoing activities”, which is a bit vague. The point of this is to try to ascertain where the money is going—either up or down. If we are just given that information, it would make life a lot easier than just referring to some “ongoing activities”. You are bound to get a question on something like that because it is so vague, and we are talking nearly £30 million.

Sorry to interrupt, minister but if you think about it, the total capital budgeted spend will be £5.845 billion and £235 million in one particular portfolio is quite a significant slice of that. That is why I was quite intrigued as to what that money will be spent on.

Good morning and welcome to the ninth meeting in 2024 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. We are joined today by Gillian Mackay, who is attending the meeting as a committee substitute in the absence of Ross Greer, who is at another committee. I invite Gillian to declare any relevant interests.

The next item on our agenda today is an evidence session with the Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance on the draft Budget (Scotland) Act 2023 Amendment Regulations 2024. Mr Arthur is joined today by two Scottish Government officials: Scott Mackay, head of finance co-ordination, and Craig Maidment, senior finance manager. I welcome our witnesses to the meeting, and I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

That is certainly helpful for Michelle Thomson, who has been nodding away. Thank you.

One of the important aspects of the budget is the Verity house agreement and the interaction there. As part of the budget document, £1 billion of ring-fenced funding that was previously held in portfolios was baselined into the local government settlement. That has been welcomed in local government. We have a breakdown of all that information here. How much remains ring fenced?

Is the direction of travel that you will reduce ring fencing further?

Are you sure that you do not have any more final questions, Michelle?

Mr Sharma, I have a final question for you. You are a member of the expert group, which began in January last year, and has met on five occasions. Which other organisations are on that expert group?

Do you consider it to be a balanced group that has all points of view?