Chamber and committees

That is very positive—thank you very much.

Are the SUIG and others examining the balance between supporting all teachers to work with ASN children and teachers in the more specialist roles?

The panel has been terrific, as we all can see, in covering every aspect of what has been asked, but it would not do any harm to have a quick run over what has changed since the Morgan review in respect of initial teacher education or, indeed, the continuing professional development of teachers.

Fran Foreman wants to comment again, I think.

Cabinet secretary, to go off on a wee bit of a tangent—this is still related to what you have been speaking about—the Scottish Government has allocated many millions of pounds to ensure that the two vessels are delivered. However, on 24 May, you wrote to us and stated that £120,000 has been provided to Ferguson Marine for capital investment measures. A lot of money is being spent on those two boats, but capital investment measures give an indication of where the yard will go in the future. I have to say that £120,000 does not strike me as a figure that will fill people with a huge amount of confidence with regard to the yard’s future. Why has that money been allocated now? Will you give us a breakdown of how the money will be spent, please?

As we all know, this is a time when everyone is facing some financial difficulty. Colleges are no different. Colleges across the country face issues with costs and financial stability.

During this period, £800,000 of public money has been spent on investigations and associated costs at South Lanarkshire College. To what extent has the expenditure of that large amount of money helped to improve the college’s financial stability, compared with that of other colleges across the country?

Perhaps I was conflating two areas a wee bit. When you see large sums of money, you tend to look for the positive benefits, but those are two separate areas. Thank you for the answer.

Is there a way in which the large amount of money that has been spent in this instance will help the college to move towards being in balance? There is a financial issue across all colleges, as we have talked about, but it has probably been worse in this case during this period. Will the money help to bring back a degree of balance in terms of temporary staff and so on?

I have a question on the back of that. I understand those elements. I do not want you to have to predict things—that sum of £120,000 has been allocated now for those specific elements—but, as things go forward, are there likely to be further requirements in that business scenario?

You are talking about taking just over a couple of months, maybe three. It is not for me to make any decisions for the committee, but I think that it would be good if you came back to the committee before you stand up in Parliament and show us what will be implemented, so that we can interrogate that to some degree. Is that reasonable?