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We need to be cognisant of the need for sustainability. There has been continued growth in the social security budget since the inception of Social Security Scotland, the move of benefits and supports from the Department for Work and Pensions and the development of new supports in Scotland, and it is a growing part of the overall budget.

Our £1 billion increase in the social security budget to £6.3 billion is substantial. It is the right investment for the right reasons, but we are very aware of the need to ensure, as part of our requirement to achieve overall fiscal sustainability, that the investment in social security is also sustainable. I think that I set out in the medium-term financial strategy last year that the growing share of spend on and investment in Social Security Scotland are a considerable element of that financial sustainability. We are very cognisant of that.

It is always the way with budgets that the focus, whether at committee evidence sessions or in plenary debates, will be on the areas that are more constrained and challenging, rather than on the areas where there is additional investment. The additional investment in social security is absolutely focused on reducing poverty and supporting the most vulnerable. There is £6.3 billion of investment in an area that has now become a key pillar of spend by the Scottish Government, and it will undoubtedly help to support the most vulnerable. We have been able to give an inflation uplift to supports, which has led to an increase in the Scottish child payment. I think that that will be welcomed by many families, particularly in these difficult times. I very much view that as an investment in people that has arisen from a conscious decision and political choice.

It is fair to say that, had money been available in a way that did not lead to our having to make hard choices in relation to providing NDR relief and funding the health service, I would have wanted to do more for hospitality, given that there are challenges for the sector in the post-Covid environment.

I am not unsympathetic to the hospitality sector’s situation, but, as I laid out earlier, stark choices must be made. Out of the £310 million of consequentials for 2024-25, £260 million came from business tax cuts and £10.8 million was for the NHS. We could not possibly have followed through with those spending priorities. Had I done that, I would be sitting here today being asked—quite rightly—about funding for the NHS. We looked at what we could do. The freezing of the poundage at its lowest rate for the sixth year running is not an unsubstantial measure and our small business bonus goes further than anywhere else in these islands. Our reliefs are targeted.

Our focus on the islands is partly in recognition of the particular challenges that the hospitality sector in those communities has suffered, including some of the transport interruptions. The measure will give us good evidence of the difference that supports make to the hospitality sector. I am aware that, even with some of the reliefs that have been provided down south, the environment for hospitality is still quite challenging, although the position is quite mixed. Some businesses are doing well and others are not doing so well, and there will be various reasons for that.

We have committed to continuing discussions with the hospitality sector about whether, if resources allow it, we could do something that is more focused on supporting hospitality outside the existing reliefs structure. We will continue to look at that and I am sympathetic to doing more if resources become available.

The council tax freeze is one example of difficulty, but the issues for Orkney go well beyond that and involve SINA and how, more generally, the distribution works or does not work for individual local authorities. We continue to discuss with Orkney how we can help to resolve some of that in the short, medium and longer term.

Ellen, do you want to come in on that specific issue?

Given the tough financial environment, we had to look at the priorities in the rural affairs, land reform and islands budget. We will continue to provide farmers, crofters and land managers with the most generous package of direct support in the UK, which is worth more than £600 million in 2024-25. We will also continue to support people who are farming and crofting in our most remote and fragile areas through £65 million for the less favoured areas scheme in 2024-25—we are the only country in the UK to provide that vital support. We have also committed to delivering a new round of agri-environment investment as part of the overall £30 million budget.

I contend that, in a tough financial round, we have prioritised what we are able to invest in. We have also prioritised things such as peatland restoration; we are investing £26.9 million to help to achieve the peatland restoration targets. We have worked in partnership with Scottish Forestry on utilising some of its reserves to ensure that it can continue to deliver, particularly on its tree-planting targets.

It is a tough budget, but we have tried to prioritise the sector’s priorities within that.

We looked at the forestry budget in relation to the resources that Scottish Forestry has—I mentioned its reserves—and its targets and how it can continue to deliver on them.

Difficult decisions have had to be made. If those decisions had not been made, reductions in the budget would need to be made elsewhere. We will continue to work with Forestry Scotland and other organisations to ensure that they can deliver on the core ambitions that they have set out.

The key things that matter, and that will be prioritised by the agencies, along with their partners and the Scottish Government, relate to support for business and investment and ensuring that that aligns with the key priorities for delivery.

We have recognised that we sometimes ask our enterprise agencies to do 101 things, but we cannot ask them to do 101 things if resources are constrained. As ministers, we therefore need to be clear about the key things for delivery in relation to the agencies’ core functions in order to avoid duplication of things that other organisations are doing, and to ensure that the enterprise agencies are focused on the key interventions that their organisations, working with others, can bring to the table. That will help to ensure that there is investment in the key sectors for growth, whether in the Highlands and Islands or the south of Scotland, and that the agencies support businesses to start up and expand in those key sectors.

As ministers, we can sometimes be guilty of asking them to do a myriad of things. We need to be clear that the priorities that we set for our enterprise agencies—or, indeed, any other public organisation—take account of the resources that are available and at their disposal.

We are asking them to focus on the key things that will make a difference. Some of the other things that we have traditionally asked them to do will perhaps need to happen more slowly over time. The letters that we will issue to each enterprise agency will set out the key things that we will ask them to deliver over 2024-25. Some of the things that are not garnered together as key priorities will have to either not happen, or happen more slowly.

I can certainly write to the committee with that figure. There will be huge differences between the levels of reserves. Creative Scotland’s reserves have been pretty well discussed in the public domain, but there will be other organisations whose reserves have had less scrutiny. We should not necessarily see the issue as a negative—such reserves might be pertinent to investment plans and reforms that organisations plan to undertake—but we also cannot ignore it. It has to be part of the picture when we consider how we get to a more sustainable position with some of the necessary reforms and think about how reserves are utilised in the short to medium term.

That also includes the UK-funded annually managed expenditure—student debt—so we do not have control over that. That is included in that figure. Alison, do you want to say something?