The next item is on the Budget (Scotland) Act (Amendment) (No 2) Order 2001. Responses to our questions on the order have been received from the Deputy Minister for Finance and Local Government, and I invite members to comment on those responses.
Both in those responses and in the previous set of responses, it is worth considering in which areas of the budget the capital allocation has been reduced and the revenue allocation increased, or vice versa. We must look carefully at that. Being human, ministers are keen to trumpet the increases and not so keen to talk about what has decreased. It is interesting that there has been a bit of juggling of the figures.
In question 3, Andrew Wilson made the point that the Higher Education Funding Council for England had reclaimed £5 million. I was interested to note, in the Executive's response, that that would not have any effect on future years' transfers.
Members indicated agreement.
Previous
Budget (Scotland) Act 2001