Chamber and committees

Because a little additional funding from sources such as VisitScotland was factored in, the operating figure that we could allocate for economic recovery is £103 million.

All parties came forward with additional requests for funding. They can correct me live on air as to whether they suggested areas where funding should be reduced, but I do not recall hearing about those. All the spending asks were substantial. I did not disagree with all of them—we would all like to see increased spending. In our engagement, there were areas where other parties would like to see us to spend more, but I do not know where the funding would come from.

I think that Jackie Baillie is referring to last year when, for example, social care was fully costed as being in the region of between £1.5 billion and £2 billion.

The options fees will reflect the market’s willingness to compete. England and Wales had an open auction and projects in England and Wales are generally in shallower water and off the coast. We need to factor in that Scottish conditions are far more challenging, so projects are costlier to develop. They are often further out to sea, in deeper waters and will probably require the deployment of floating technology, which is still at an early stagee of development, and there are higher grid connection costs, so they are relatively more expensive to develop. All those additional costs have been factored in, not by me but by the developers who are bidding for those sites.

Amendment 1 increases the social justice, housing and local government portfolio authorisation in schedule 1 to the bill by £120 million. Amendment 2 increases the total amount of resources of the Scottish Administration in schedule 1 to take account of that additional £120 million. Amendment 3 increases the overall cash authorisation for the Scottish Administration under section 4(2) of the bill by £120 million. In other words, these amendments give us the authorisation to draw down cash and the authority to spend it.

I move amendment 1.

Amendment 1 agreed to.

Amendment 2 moved—[Kate Forbes]—and agreed to.

Schedule 1, as amended, agreed to.

Section 2 agreed to.

Schedule 2 agreed to.

Section 3 agreed to.

Schedule 3 agreed to.

Section 4—Overall cash authorisations

Amendment 3 moved—[Kate Forbes]—and agreed to.

Section 4, as amended, agreed to.

Sections 5 to 11 agreed to.

Long title agreed to.

I clarify that quite a lot of the £440 million was already factored into budgets. For example, it includes funding that we identified for next year’s budget but has been paid in this year’s budget. It is a complex picture, and it is difficult to draw a line directly from the £440 million.

It is hard to say at this point, in advance of supplementary estimates, but I envisage—I can be corrected on this—that additional consequentials will be generated in health and social care. I mention that as a caveat. Additional funding that is generated by there being more spending south of the border is likely to come from health. An element might come from transport, because the UK Government has invested in transport, which has been affected over the past few weeks, in the same way that we have. That is my understanding.

We have the conversation about baselining every year. I hope that the way to get away from that conversation is through the resource spending review. However, I have heard the calls from local government. I do not know whether Ian Storrie has anything to add on local government finance, but I note that the £120 million is not ring fenced, so it can be spent on what local government determines. Things including national insurance contributions will need, technically, to be paid year on year, and pay will need to be paid year on year. I am very conscious of rolling budgets. I do not want to pre-empt next year’s budget, but I sincerely hope that we will, through the resource spending review of what local government actually needs, be in a better position well in advance of that, and that we will not still be having this groundhog day discussion about whether things are baselined.

Daniel Johnson asks a good question and has already explained why that is not identified separately: it is all part of the overall block grant.

I do not think that a lot of the Covid-related spend can be, in Mr Johnson’s words, “switched off” in the short term. We can take the recovery work that is going on in justice as an example. There is a backlog of cases, some of them hugely challenging. While the courts are dealing with that backlog, new cases come forward all the time. It will be challenging to work through a backlog that keeps increasing. I cannot see that being “switched off”, as Daniel Johnson put it, in the short term. Those working on the justice portfolio have a good grasp of what is required in order to get through that backlog. I have had conversations with the Lord Advocate, the Lord President and the cabinet secretary Keith Brown about that.

Recovery will take some time if we want to see better outcomes at the end of that work. We are now in a situation where Covid-related funding is not exceptional or a one-off. It is not about emergency, one-off, grants whereby we can clearly determine that that spending is a result of something like omicron. Covid-related funding has become business as usual for many portfolios.

To go back to the resource spending review, multiyear spending must be affordable. That is a challenge. Going back to Ross Greer’s question, there are difficult decisions ahead. The spending envelope is not getting any bigger to accommodate the additional Covid-related spend, so we must become better at ensuring that our funding delivers the right outcomes.

The overall responsibility falls within my budget, but the primary ministers who are responsible are Jamie Hepburn, who is responsible for skills, and Richard Lochhead, who is looking at fair work elements. They work together quite closely.

On budget lines, that is a really good point. I could go through the list, mentioning the national transition training fund, the no one left behind scheme and so on, and tell you about all the different things that the public sector is doing and where I am spending money, but you are asking where employers are spending money—

I have two points to make about that. The first is that Registers of Scotland received significant Covid consequential funding this year. As part of the more than £639 million of Covid consequential funding, Registers of Scotland got—if I remember correctly—£14 million. If I am incorrect about that, I will get back to you.

Secondly, Registers of Scotland got substantial financial support because, of course, it raises income. I have been assured that it can still deliver its services within the budget that has been allocated.

It is challenging to put a specific figure on the overall cost of phase 2 now. There is a moveable feast when it comes to what we could do on each recommendation. My officials might be able to flesh that out. One of the recommendations is about investing in a marketing campaign. I would like that to be as impactful as possible, but we do not have a specific figure. Generally, we are talking about £25 million of resource and £24 million of capital—those are the figures that we are using at the moment, but I caveat that by saying that we will identify funding for the recommendations as they require to be implemented in the light of particular pressures.

Another example that I can give relates to the skills agenda, which Fiona Hyslop will know well. There is probably an unlimited requirement for investment in reskilling and upskilling in tourism. Although there will be funding identified for that, it needs to reflect the situation at the time.

On the issue of confidence, I take the point that, if funding for a specific requirement does not appear in the budget, that raises questions. That is why it is important that there continues to be engagement with STERG so that it is conscious of our commitment to continue to progress our commitments and knows that we are willing to work with it as and when its recommendations are required as part of the recovery. That process starts right now. In fact, it started over the Christmas period, even though the tourism industry has been focused on the immediate challenges.

There is still financial support available in the budget for tourism more generally. It is not a case of our not investing in tourism. We are talking specifically about the STERG proposals.

I will stop there. I think that there was a second part to your question, which I am afraid I cannot recall.