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More than 160 men died in that disaster, so it was a major focus at the time. One would have thought that technology would have made things easier rather than more difficult and complex.

I should have put on record the fact that the Scottish Parliament information centre has said that, on average, legal costs account for 35 per cent of the cost of an inquiry, so we are not saying that it is all about the lawyers.

Our paper from SPICe also says:

“After the Chair, the inquiry secretary is probably the most important person for the running of a successful inquiry. The secretary is usually recruited from the civil service; however, this is for the chair to decide.”

Should experience of controlling budgets be considered when selecting an inquiry secretary?

You mentioned efficiency. In response to question 5, the Faculty of Advocates’ written submission says:

“Having an inquiry team of sufficient size to allow conduct of hearings into one topic to take place at the same time as preparation of the next topic”

is important.

How many people are needed for a sufficient team in a standard inquiry? I know that they are all different.

My God—you will be all right for a tap.

Indeed, but what are the parameters? Is it five counsel? Is it 50?

In the previous memorandum, there were specific sections on IT. Mention has been made of the fact that we are somehow expected to read the two previous financial memorandums in conjunction with the financial update. Would it not be easier to have one comprehensive document that laid out all the costs, as the committee requested some weeks ago? What is the point in looking at what the costs were projected to be in 2022 or 2023? That needs to be put to one side. We want to know what the position is as we go forward, and one comprehensive, easy-to-access document that included IT as a component would provide that.

That is a worry, but I shall leave it at that.

I will give the minister the final word. Are there any further points that you wish to relay to the committee before I wind up the session?

Some of the evidence that we took from witnesses suggested a kind of wonderment as to why we were even having a fiscal sustainability plan as opposed to having such a plan in the medium-term financial strategy. The Fraser of Allander Institute, for example, thought that a separate document was unnecessary. Why is such a document necessary? We frequently hear from witnesses about the plethora of plans and strategies that the Government has. Although I understand why you would have a plethora across the Government, in finance alone there always seem to be plans and strategies that do not seem to be joined up. We have received comment that greater clarity on how the strategies join up would be good. Even better would be if there were one overarching strategy that incorporated everything, as opposed to all the different plans and strategies that seem to run in different directions.

Timeframes are really important—that is what I was going to ask you about next. We hear from the Government about plans for reform, but we do not necessarily get detail on what is to be reformed and by which date. It seems to be a moveable feast. I was thinking about my tax return—the reason why I filed it at the end of January is because the deadline is the end of January; if it were the end of February, I would probably do it then, because there is always something else to do. Not having deadlines means that things drift, and we have seen such drift quite consistently. Documents that are due never seem to arrive ahead of or on time—there always seems to be some drift in that. That is the same with the medium-term financial strategy.

Something that has also come up is that, when the Scottish budget is delivered, there does not seem to be detail on the outcomes that it is trying to achieve. It is a two-dimensional document in which we see the figures in certain portfolios either going up, staying the same or going down across the years, but we do not see what the Government is trying to achieve. You valiantly try to put that on the record in a 20 or 30-minute statement, but you cannot possibly get all that detail in.

I do not think that anyone wants to see a 500-page document—140 pages is sufficient—but there is room for more detail on outcomes. In particular, there is room to link the budget to the national performance framework to see how it ties in, because there is a view that the two do not seem to correlate as well as they perhaps should.

We should maybe revisit that.

Great stuff. I hope that it does not clash with our away days on 26 and 27 August, but there you go. We will certainly ask you about that in the not-too-distant future.

As a committee, we will consider the evidence that we have received and, next month, we will publish a report on the Scottish budget in practice.

We will take a five-minute break, now, to allow for a change of witnesses.