Chamber and committees

The committee knows that there are challenges across the higher education sector. We can go on to talk about what some of those challenges are, if the committee would like, but I am conscious that you are taking evidence from someone else following my session.

There are challenges at the University of Edinburgh. We have been engaging with that university under the auspices of the SFC. Remember that the funding that we provided to the SFC was for institutions—plural—in relation to some of the challenges. We very much recognise that the University of Dundee at the current time has a unique challenge that in no small part relates to its own finances and decisions that it took. The University of Edinburgh is in a separate space, but it still has its own challenges, and its principal has set out some of those. We have been engaged with that institution via the SFC, which we will continue to engage with on how we can support the institution more broadly.

I am not aware of a financial ask from the University of Edinburgh. However, as I have said, I am meeting the SFC this afternoon, so I can interrogate that matter further with the SFC on Mr Briggs’s behalf.

In the update that I provide to the committee in relation to Mr Rennie’s line of questioning, I will be more than happy to include details about the University of Edinburgh as well.

If the budget settlement from the UK Government was so generous, I am at a bit of a loss to understand why Ms Duncan-Glancy and her party abstained on the Scottish budget, which commits the Scottish Government—as does the SSI—to moving forward and doing more. I gave the example of the City of Edinburgh Council. In that local authority area alone, we expect thousands of families to benefit from the SSI. The instrument commits the Government to moving on the budget that was negotiated with and voted for by the Parliament—in other words, it commits us to progress.

I could sit back and allow local authorities to use the data-sharing measures that they currently use, but we know that those do not capture most families who receive the Scottish child payment. The SSI will ensure that local authorities have the data that they need to deliver on the funding that we have provided through the budget in relation to the Scottish child payment.

I agree with Ms Duncan-Glancy’s overall point about universality. She well knows the inflationary pressures that the Government was forced to contend with in 2021, which have made everything much more expensive. Building kitchens, for example, is now much more expensive than it was three years ago. There have been other costs that we have had to meet, not least in relation to pay deals, which has affected the budget that I have had to manage and what we have been able to pay for.

From a personal perspective as cabinet secretary, I deeply regret the fact that we have not been able to deliver universality. It remains an aspiration and a commitment of the Government. I am pleased that we are making progress in relation to the roll-out of the Scottish child payment. The SSI is the next step in our commitment to universal roll-out, and the Government stands by that.

We are considering such options. Ms Duncan-Glancy is absolutely correct to say that, if we have 32 different councils doing 32 different things, the process will take a lot longer. The SSI will allow our councils to move at pace.

Deliverability is key. It is our expectation that the measure will be delivered. I have spoken about the funding that has been made available in last year’s budget and this year’s budget, but the SSI enables the data to be shared and allows councils to get on with it. If we allowed local authorities to do their own thing, it would be much more challenging for them to obtain that data and to work with families. As I understand it, Social Security Scotland will provide the information directly to education authorities as soon as the SSI comes into force on 19 May. That will allow them to move at pace and to contact the families in question directly.

I think that there is learning that could be taken from what we are doing here, and I accept the point about a unique learner number.

I think that Mr Rennie’s puzzlement may be informed by the release of emails in response to a freedom of information request. It is quite difficult to understand the full story but, as I understand it, two weeks ago, Richard Maconachie came to the committee and said that the Scottish Funding Council was working with the Scottish Government to identify how the £22 million could be put together. As I understand it from having been on the copy list, there were negotiations at that time between the SFC and the Government to identify how the £22 million could be made available, and that was done through £15 million in the budget and the extra £10 million that I made available, giving a total of £25 million, so the full funding ask was met.

No—nothing.

It would be remiss of me to speak on behalf of Mr Dey. The approach that has been used in relation to widening access has been quite different to the one that we have undertaken with the Scottish child payment more broadly. However, I take the point that the convener has made. As I mentioned, we discussed the issue with Universities Scotland very recently. The approach in this SSI has been in the making with Social Security Scotland for many months, if not longer. It has taken longer than it should have taken to get the data share with Social Security Scotland. We want to learn from that experience and see whether the proposal is possible.

I have not been presented with advice on this, so I do not want to speak out of turn. However, I want to discuss with officials whether we could lift the approach that has been used in relation to the SCP and apply it to widening access. As I said, thus far, I have not had advice on that. There is a slight difference with the unique learning number that you spoke about. I see that Ms Meikle is nodding—she may want to come in on that point.

The budget proposes funding for roll-out that is targeted at those receiving the Scottish child payment. That was also in the programme for government last September. The Government has been pretty clear about its commitment, and the issue has been discussed at length in the chamber.

I do not think that we are at odds here, Ms Duncan-Glancy. We agree that we want to engage with the Information Commissioner’s Office on all this in relation to data sharing, and we have done that extensively in relation to the SSI that I am here to discuss.

In relation to the Aberdeen widening access pilot, we must also be mindful that, although the Government has a role in relation to the budget and our commitment to delivery of the SCP, we are talking about Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen. The universities are autonomous and independent of Government, and our councils have the statutory responsibility for the delivery of education. What we are able to do in relation to the widening access pilot might not look exactly the same as what we have done to apply the SSI to the SCP roll-out. However, in all of those projects, we must engage with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

In today’s session, Ms Duncan-Glancy has heard my willingness to pursue the matter further with the Information Commissioner’s Office. I also hear the convener’s point on that. My view is that we should take learning from the SSI to allow us to move at pace in relation to data sharing. The widening access pilot has had challenges regarding the timescales that are associated with it, which we accept; however, the SSI that we are discussing today commits the Government to move at pace and it will mean that local authorities will have that data in their hands by 19 May, when the SSI comes into effect, and they will be able to share that data with families accordingly.

If any information or learning can be taken from the approach that I am talking about today and applied to the widening access pilot or the broader national approach, I would be keen to do that, with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

It is my expectation that, through work with local authorities, that will be delivered during this parliamentary session. That is my expectation and my understanding.

Based on my discussions with officials, we expect the vast majority of those projects to be delivered by the end of this calendar year. Some of them are more complex because—I was trying to make this point to Mr Ross—they require more extensive building works than others do. In the budget last year, we made provision for capital spending; this year, we have made provision available for resource spending. The funding has been made available. We have also provided the regulatory updates, which is what today’s SSI is about, and we are enabling local authorities to get on and deliver on the Parliament’s expectations, particularly in relation to the budget agreement.