Chamber and committees

I have one final point. Obviously, the committee has talked a lot about the national performance framework. How many of the budget decisions that you are taking adhere to its principles?

On a minor point of clarification, in answer to Mr Mason’s first question on the difference between the two columns, you said—if I heard you correctly—that the second figure was money that you thought might have to be used for the £195 million, I think it was.

Yes. On what criteria has that been based? What have you used to make that estimate?

Has the demand for the money reduced?

Where are they exactly?

Yes. The fiscal discipline, if you like, has always been that capital budgets may be transferred to capital budgets but not to resource budgets. Money can go the other way but, generally speaking, it has not been the case that capital can be used for resource spending, which is what seems to be happening now. Can you confirm whether the easing of that fiscal discipline is happening because of the extenuating circumstances that you outlined or whether you are looking to ease the rules on that?

Is that part of the negotiations for the new fiscal framework that you are looking at?

Do you have an update on the timing of the independent report?

Convener, it would be helpful if we had a little more detail about some of these things.

Well, you just gave a good example. In the transport budget, specific changes have been made that you had thought might be included but which did not have to be. It would be helpful to know what the other ones were.