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I am dealing with cash, and local authorities are getting £550 million more next year than they got this year. Whatever way you want to dress it up, that is an increase. That enables us to sustain our delivery of the type of interventions that Mr Whittle is raising with me.

I do not want to sour the atmosphere this morning, but we come back to hard choices here—

I assure Mr Whittle that we look constantly at how we can intervene early to proactively improve the health of the population. There are many different ways in which we are trying to do that. We encourage people to carefully manage their health, to exercise and to take all the necessary precautions that they can to maintain their physical fitness and their general health and wellbeing. There is a range of areas of activity and interventions across Government, local government and the third sector.

Mr Whittle raises an issue that is certainly important and that is not only pandemic-related. We should, in general, be attentive to and focused on how we can improve the health and wellbeing of the population. So many of the Government’s public messages and many of our policy interventions—whether on the minimum unit pricing of alcohol, the banning of smoking in public places, the exhortation to exercise or the daily mile—are all part of that agenda.

I will not sit here and say that there is no more that we could do. The Government is very open to dialogue with colleagues in Parliament about how we can maximise that work.

Obviously, we take a range of steps to try to enhance productivity. A lot of what we do is associated with, for example, investment that we make through the university research channel. Our universities have responded positively over a number of years to our appeal to them to engage more closely with the wider business community to collaborate on business and economic research. We are now seeing much higher levels of collaboration and co-operation, which will in part help us to answer the question on productivity.

Our wider investment in skills is designed to do likewise. Obviously, we are operating in an incredibly tight labour market, which is putting additional pressures on the work that we can undertake to ensure that the needs of the business community are properly and fully reflected in the support that we make available to ensure that businesses have access to the productive skills that they require. However, I acknowledge that that is an on-going and significant challenge that we have to face.

Work on the four-day working week pilot is being undertaken under the budget lines on fair work. We will take forward work on the four-day working week pilot as part of the 2023-24 programme. That will obviously be part of the wider agenda of improving the productive capacity of the Scottish economy, on which the national strategy is focused.

Yes.

I have been struck—without wishing to single out Michelle Thomson—by some of the questions that have been put to me on particular areas of interest. If the committee has aspirations for the information that it would like to see or any detail that it would like to have available to it, I will willingly consider how we can most positively respond to that.

We know already from data that the percentage of women-led small and medium-sized employers in Scotland has reduced from 20 per cent in 2015 to 14 per cent in 2019. That is an issue of real concern to us, and it prompted Ana Stewart’s review. We also know from other data that females in Scotland are about half as likely as males are to be early-stage entrepreneurs. The data already tells us that, hence the action that we are taking.

I would not want the committee to feel that we do not have the data to prompt the action that we need to take, such as the review, because I think that that data exists, and I have placed it on the public record today.

I am certainly happy to take away the questions on data and to respond to the committee. Some of those issues might be part of what Ana Stewart ends up recommending. That is speculation on my part, but I think that it would be sensible for me to wait to see what Ana Stewart produces and then to reflect on the issues that you are putting to me in the context of our response to her.

I will highlight our experience in relation to the point that Mark Logan made to the committee about the health of early-stage entrepreneurial activity in Scotland today. I attribute that to seeds that were planted pretty close to 10 years ago, when I took a decision to invest in Scottish EDGE, which has created a vibrant entrepreneurial community.

There was a lot of risk involved in that. When I was being advised on what I should consider when supporting such a scheme, I was properly advised of the degree of risk involved because of the likelihood that there would be business failures and reputational risk to the Government as a consequence. However, my view was that that was a risk worth taking. What has it done over all those years? It has created exactly what Mark Logan said to the committee.

That was not always the case—10 years before that, there was substantial concern about early-stage entrepreneurial activity in Scotland. I think that we largely arrested and resolved that problem by taking appropriate decisions about eight or nine years ago.

The challenges that we now need to focus on—many of our other measures, particularly those around the Scottish National Investment Bank, are supporting this—relate to scaling up business activity when we have the necessary investment capital to enable new-start businesses in Scotland to flourish and become much more significant contributors to the economy.

Let me be crystal clear—it is my hope that that money will be the last. The assessment by the yard of what it requires is what I have provided for in both the additional commitment of about £15 million that I have allocated in the current financial year and the sum that is provided for in the budget for 2023-24. I am responding to the plans that have been put to me by the yard. The Government scrutinises the propositions that are put to us. I hope that that is the last contribution that we will have to make.

As I have said, financial transactions are a slightly different proposition. However, I would make the wider point—I was very candid about this in what I said to Parliament—that inflation is sitting at 10.5 per cent, whereas the budget has not increased by 10.5 per cent; it has not even increased by the gross domestic product deflator, hence the real-terms reduction from 2021 to 2022. I cannot allocate money that I do not have, so there have been tough choices.

I have multiple pressures—we are in the Economy and Fair Work Committee, but the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee is probably meeting somewhere else in the building just now and considering the colossal pressures in the health service. All budgets will be an attempt to deal with financial strain when resources are tight. I have tried to strike the most reasonable balance that I can. I will not disguise the fact that organisations face financial challenges and that they will have to change the ways in which they are working. I was explicit about those requirements when I set out the budget proposition to Parliament.

I do not think that that necessarily has to be the case. I have tried to provide a financial settlement that allows organisations to adapt to a much more pressured financial environment and to adjust their way of working to enable that to be the case.

I do not think so. All SNIB investments have to be made on a commercial basis. The bank is able to make judgments on the ventures that merit its support and investment. It has successfully developed a strong view on the role that it can perform in being an enabler of other investment. When the bank is able to invest in a particular proposition, that gives rise to potential investment from other parties, a consequence of which is that ventures are better supported.

I do not think that the bank operates under any particular constraints on its being able to fulfil the remit that the Government has set for it, but the bank is on a journey to develop its financial strength and reputation, and the steps that have been taken are encouraging.