Chamber and committees

There is a lot of merit in the points raised by Mr Coffey. We saw tremendous development in innovative community practice during Covid, whereby solutions were found by communities for individuals. The Government is intent on encouraging and nurturing that approach.

It is important that we are on our guard against a return to old ways of working. Some of the new ways of working that were developed during Covid have been of great benefit and advantage to our society and our communities. We want to ensure that we preserve those. I assure Mr Coffey that the Government is trying to design its funding interventions, particularly for measures such as the Dundee pathfinder work, to do exactly that.

The Government has allocated £570 million more to local government for the next financial year compared to this financial year—budget bill to budget bill. That is the fact, and that is the reality of the budget uplift that has taken place.

In the resource spending review, the position for local government was presented as being flat cash from this financial year to the next. We have changed that. We increased the number by £570 million, to enable local authorities, as best we can within the resources that are available to us, to withstand the challenges that we all face around inflation.

Mr Bibby knows how the budget system works. There is a total funding envelope available. It has been allocated in full to portfolios. If Mr Bibby wishes to change that and allocate more money to local government, he has to do the decent, straightforward and honest thing and tell us where the money will come from. He should not come to the Parliament and posture; he should tell us where the money will come from.

Since the Conservative Government came into office in 2010-11, average real-terms cuts have been more than 5 per cent. That equates to a loss of £18 billion to Scottish Government budgets over that period, and there will be consequential effects on local government into the bargain.

Mr Kidd’s point is important. When the challenges that we face on hyperinflation, which, among other things, has been fuelled by the actions of the Conservative Government and its mismanagement of the mini-budget in September, are built on to the effects of austerity, they place real and enduring pressure on our public services and finances.

As Mr O’Kane might be aware, there is provision in the health budget for the maintenance of pandemic preparedness in relation to many of the issues that he raises, such as PPE and testing arrangements, as I rehearsed in my answer to Jackie Baillie. That provision has been made on a prudential basis. We all hope that we will not need to increase the scale of investment that is required in that regard, but there is provision in the budget to enable that to happen. Support would be available to those who required it, and I imagine that, in many cases, carers would be eligible for that support.

The Covid recovery portfolio supports the Scottish Government’s commitment to renewing public services through public service reform, the delivery of the Covid recovery strategy—which is supporting those who have been most impacted during the pandemic and on-going cost crisis—and its contributions to the co-ordination of recovery activity across the Scottish Government.

As detailed in the 2023-24 budget statement, the budget line includes a range of commitments, including work to support the operation of the Scottish public inquiry into the handling of Covid-19 and work on preparedness, assessment and co-ordination of concurrent risks across the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact that long Covid can have on the health and wellbeing of the people who are affected, including on their ability to stay in employment. Although there have been increases in the numbers of people who are economically inactive due to sickness since before the pandemic, the extent to which that is attributable solely to long Covid is not yet clear.

We are investing in scientific efforts to understand and treat long Covid, and we have made funding available to national health service boards and partners to deliver the best local models of care for assessment, diagnostic tests and support for the on-going management or treatment of symptoms.

Through our fair work agenda, we are also supporting employers and explaining to them how they can support workers who are living with long Covid to remain in employment.

We have a priority across the whole of Government to maximise the available level of participation in the labour market. We want to maximise the number of people who are available to actively contribute to the labour market.

As I said in my earlier response to Christine Grahame, we have low levels of unemployment and high levels of employment, and the labour market is tight. Therefore, we are encouraging people who have long Covid to return to work, and all the necessary clinical support, mental wellbeing support and any other assistance that is required should be available to them. If there is a case for individuals to find alternative employment, we should be open to providing the training and skills enhancement activity that will support them in making the transition.

The Covid recovery strategy is focused on reducing systemic inequalities, tackling poverty and supporting the people who were most affected during the pandemic. That includes a range of actions to support and enhance the wellbeing of all children and young people, including through investing a further £45 million in our young person’s guarantee in 2022-23. Further detail on the support that is being provided to students is set out in our coronavirus education recovery strategy, which describes a range of advice, guidance and funding that is provided with regard to mental health, wellbeing and tackling digital poverty.

In 2023-24, local authorities will receive funding through the local government finance settlement of £13.2 billion. Local authorities also have a range of revenue raising powers that are not available to other public services.

The impact of the settlement on public services will depend on how local authorities allocate the total resources that are available to them and the level of service that they then provide. Although local authorities are responsible for setting their own budgets, the total funding that is provided by the Scottish Government will increase by more than £570 million in 2023-24 compared with the 2022-23 budget.

Murdo Fraser does not support the increases in tax that I have announced in the budget, so before he comes to the chamber and tries to argue for any reallocation of money, there is a big, gaping, stonking black hole in his argument, which is his unwillingness to take the hard decisions that I have taken on tax. I have become accustomed to Mr Fraser’s posturing over many years, but, having wanted us to follow the Truss mini-budget that destroyed the public finances, he was then not prepared to take hard decisions on tax. Forgive me, Presiding Officer, but I will pay no attention to the Conservative Party’s critique of the budget that I have presented.