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I accept that. However, had we held out to say that we were not going to make the agreement unless we could have that, we would not have got the agreement.

You can be assured that our key asks on a number of matters will be put to any new Government that emerges after a general election, not just on fiscal powers but on things such as the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020, the Sewel convention, the way in which Governments interact and the respect agenda—trying to get back to a position of respect. The days of the memorandum of understanding seem a long way away. A lot has happened. The internal market act in particular is a real impediment to devolution and is an erosion in so many respects. It makes the day-to-day interaction with the UK Government very difficult. That is not just a Scottish Government position, I hasten to add, but a Welsh Government position.

There is important work to do on what the devolved Administration’s relationship is with the UK Government. Rather than that being a party-political issue, there is a more fundamental issue of the relationship between the devolved Administrations and the UK Government. The balance of power has shifted away from the devolved Administrations in so many respects. There is an opportunity to reset and refresh that. The element of fiscal powers that we have been talking about is a part of that.

There will be a further meeting of officials in the new year to examine where we have got to. I mentioned that the evidence that this committee has heard will be an important part of that. The outcome of those discussions will be considered at a future meeting of the joint Exchequer committee. The best outcome would be that, working together with Treasury officials, officials put some joint recommendations to us and then a decision is made. As I said earlier, I am happy to keep the committee updated.

There are a few issues there. The first is that we cannot escape the fact that capital budgets will decline, unless something changes tomorrow, and that the purchasing power of what can be developed and built with that reducing capital availability is constrained. Therefore, we will need to prioritise. I will set out our proposition in the budget. We recognise very much that modernising and improving the prison estate to ensure that it is fit for purpose is a priority, and we are keen to do that. We know that the pressures on the prison estate at the moment are challenging, to say the least.

You touched on spend to save. That is part of the reform agenda that I am taking forward on behalf of the whole of Government. That is about looking at ways of doing things differently, whether on resource or capital. One of the issues that we are looking at is the public sector estate in its widest sense and what we do where and why. One of the challenges of future investment in the net zero space is the requirement to bring public buildings up to scratch in terms of net zero emissions. With some buildings, it will simply not make sense to do that, given the cost. That will require us to think about co-location and where things are done, taking account of patterns of home and office working, which have changed since Covid. All of that is being looked at in the work on the estate strategy.

Looking more widely at the reform of public bodies and fiscal sustainability, one of the issues is the balance of the workforce and where that sits, as well as affordability, in terms of the size of the workforce and what the workforce does. All that needs to be taken forward carefully, and we need to ensure that what we end up with—this will take time; it is not going to happen in the short term—is a sustainable set of public services that can continue to provide high-quality service, but which might look and feel a bit different from the way that they do at the moment. The prison estate and the justice system are one part of that.

That conclusion is really helpful.

Liz Smith is right to point out the inherent tensions. Clearly, both principles are hugely important. Given the narrowness of the scope of the review and that, in relation to the methodology, we were focusing on the ability to borrow in order to deal with tax reconciliation and the Scotland reserve, it is fair to say that the priority was very much in no-detriment territory. It was about making sure that we protected our position as far as we could, within the limited scope of the review.

As I laid out in my opening remarks, I was very aware that decisions on the methodology would make a huge difference to the quantum in the Scottish budget, taking into account the issues of population growth. The no-detriment principle played into that to a larger extent because of the narrow scope of the review. That is my honest assessment. That might not have been the case had we been looking at a broader range of matters in the review, but in relation to those particular issues, that was foremost in my mind.

It is largely unchanged.

You are right that a window of opportunity was open to us. The former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, was keen to conclude matters in advance of any potential changes to personnel in the Treasury. We understood that the window of opportunity might not remain open for long.

The narrow scope of the review was made clear to us. Of course, over time, we have demanded and requested additional financial levers and the devolution of further taxes. We will continue to do that but it was made clear that a deal could be made on the limited scope that was set out, which I covered in my opening remarks.

There was a judgment to be made about whether to accept the narrow scope to get tangible gains or to continue to argue for a widening of the scope. My judgment was that what was on the table was limited and nothing else was going to be put on the table. Therefore, it was prudent to secure the gains in a negotiation on the narrow scope, which we eventually managed to do. Those are judgments, and it was my judgment that, despite the narrow scope, there were still substantial gains to be made.

As I said earlier, part of the budget process will require me to set out what we are able to do for the remainder of this parliamentary session and, under the infrastructure investment plan, going beyond the longer-term horizon. We have been looking to innovative financing models to try and fill some of the space, but that is not without its challenges around resource costs. There are no easy answers. Again, I would make a plea with respect to the UK Government’s autumn statement tomorrow, when there is an opportunity to make a change of direction on capital. That would be very welcome and my letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer included the point that there needed to be more support for the capital position. [Interruption.]

Let me be candid. John Glen was perhaps an oasis in a desert. We were able to do business with someone who was very clear about his objectives and was open and straight about them. Treasury officials were in a very productive space. That comes back to the window of opportunity and John Glen recognised that that window might be open only as long as he was in the position, to put it bluntly.

Sometimes it is about relationships and you can find a negotiation and, obviously, that works both ways. We found ourselves in a situation where there was a clear willingness on both sides, despite the limitations, to get business done. John Glen has now moved on. I have not yet met the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, but hope to have a call with her in advance of the autumn statement.

In the context of the very difficult relationship that we have with the UK Government and in my experience of dealing with a number of ministers, John Glen was a breath of fresh air. I hope that I am not making him blush by saying that; I will probably not do his career prospects much good.