 i gyd o'r rhaid o'r gyrfa o'r fforddfodol i gyd yn 50,000 yn ynddyn nhw? Mae gyd yn ddod o'r cwestiynau. Yn y ddweud o'r cyfleidiau, mae'n ddweud o John Swinney o'r ddraffbudget 2016-17. Yr ydych chi'n gweithio'r First Minister o'r ddweud o'r ddweud, ac mae'n ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o Wonir Trif kinledigau. Yr Ydych chi'n ddweud o'r gyfer phaniaethol toogen ar gyfer yr ystod yn cartibol a gweld rankbarthia�ủ mwydon rhaid i ffliwgroneg. Fe hwnnau iawn cyfe calig yn gyffredeg filtration i go aheaddau en Hoeave a suk dumaleol, rydyn ni i fynd i i'r g menyituol i'r attitudes o gyd am gyglwles婆 faint, o nadol ei gym Multig Lingi hateun gwagodgio hollfyr, o beth na gamog kidnappedurr yn enedig gymanylingydd o embeddad o iyng healingferiesc tspigol. As a consequence of UK Government austerity, the Scottish budget will continue to fall in real terms as it has done since 2010 until the end of this decade. The realities of the public finances are such that if we want to improve our services, we must be prepared to continually reform the way in which we deliver them. This budget is therefore driven by two themes, supporting inclusive growth and protecting and reforming public services. We will deliver inclusive growth by focusing on investment in innovation, infrastructure, education and skills, and by maintaining a competitive business environment. We will protect and reform public services by delivering on the Christie commission approach of service integration at local level, a shift to prevention and improving outcomes for individuals. The tax and spending plans that I am announcing today will equip the country for the future and lay the foundations for the reforms that will define the next Parliament. Reforms that will reshape our health and social care services, deliver a step change in educational attainment, provide greater focus in the innovation system, deliver a fairer system of local taxation and use new powers over tax and welfare in a way that supports our central purpose. The current financial landscape presents us with a challenge and a choice. Scotland can accept those Tory cuts or we can rise to the challenge and choose a Scottish alternative to austerity. We choose to rise to the challenge, we choose the Scottish alternative, we choose to put reform and growth at the heart of this budget. We will build on the Scottish Government's record of delivering for the people of this country. Our economy has now grown in each and every quarter of the last three years. Over the last latest period, employment has risen and unemployment has fallen. We have invested heavily in infrastructure, modernising services and boosting construction. We have invested in Scotland's NHS, staff numbers are at record levels. We have worked to mitigate the most damaging effects of the UK Government's welfare cuts. We have delivered curriculum for excellence and a record number of higher and advanced higher passes were achieved in 2015. We have delivered 600 hours of free, high-quality early learning and childcare. Our country is safer, with a 41-year low, and we are on track to reach our 2020 interim climate change targets. That is a record that we are confident of taking to the people of this country. This year's programme for government reaffound our commitment to build on those strong foundations. However, our aims are made more difficult to achieve by the UK Government's continued austerity agenda. By 2020, our budget will be 12.5 per cent lower in real terms than when the Conservatives came to power. That is the equivalent of £1 in every eight that we spend being cut by Westminster by 2020. Even our capital budget will be still more than £0.5 billion lower each year in real terms in 2021 than it was in 2010-11. Once we all recognise that public finances need to be sustainable, the scale of the cuts is unnecessary, even to meet the chancellor's own fiscal mandate. We laid out clear, detailed plans that reduced both the deficit and debt while allowing public investment in the economy. The Conservatives rejected that plan. Their ideological obsession with austerity is born out of choice rather than necessity. We will not make the same choice, we won't make the poorest in society bear the burden. That vision and commitment to fairness underpins our approach to taxation. We recognise that to support the public services that we all rely on, we must ensure that our tax policies are built on the principle that the tax burden should be proportionate to the ability to pay. Today's draft budget marks the first time that a Scottish Government will propose a Scottish rate of income tax. From April 2016, the UK Government will reduce the block grant by £4.9 billion with the partial devolution of income tax powers and, at the same time, switch off £10 of income tax in Scotland. I am required now to set a rate in Scotland. The current power allows for one single rate to be set here in Scotland and applied equally to all three income tax bans, the basic, higher and additional rates. This means that any rate set above £10 would increase the tax paid by all Scottish taxpayers. By its nature, exercising this power would have a disproportionate effect on the amount of tax paid by those on the lowest of incomes. Likewise, first any rate below £10 would cut the tax bill paid by all taxpayers, those on the highest incomes would see the greatest benefit. So the simple fact is this, the tax power does not enable me to target help to those on the lowest of incomes. However, I have the power to ensure that this tax does not inflict an additional burden on those on low incomes. I can therefore confirm that there will be no change in income tax rates next year. I propose that the Scottish rate of income tax will be set at £10 in the pound. The rate that people pay this year will be the same rate that they will pay next year. I hope that, from 2017-18, this Parliament will have more flexibility in setting income tax rates. However, that will depend on reaching agreement on a new fiscal framework and final passage of the Scotland Bill. I can confirm that, subject to achieving those outcomes, the Government will set out our longer-term intentions with regard to income tax ahead of the dissolution of Parliament at the end of March. The setting of the Scottish rate marks the latest tax power to be transferred to Scotland. Since April this year, Revenue Scotland has been responsible for the administration and collection of Scottish landfill tax and land and buildings transaction tax, and we are on track to meet our forecast revenues for the year. Scottish landfill tax returns, covering the first six months of this financial year, amounted to more than £74 million against a forecast of £117 million for the year as a whole. Land and buildings transaction tax revenues exceeded £218 million for the first seven months of this financial year, which also compares favourably with our forecast revenues of £381 million for 2015-16. In setting the rates for 2016-17, we have listened to the views of the property industry and other key stakeholders. I plan to maintain the existing rates and thresholds for land and buildings transaction tax for residential, non-residential and lease transactions, ensuring that the system remains progressive. That means that more than 10,000 additional purchases will be taken out of tax compared with the UK-wide stamp duty system that it replaced last year and result in the reduced tax charge for over 36,000 house purchases at or below £330,000. Overall, 93 per cent of house buyers pay no tax or less tax than under stamp duty. I am however conscious of the issue of second homes. We need to ensure that the opportunities for first-time buyers to enter the market in Scotland are as strong as they possibly can be. We need to make certain that tax changes elsewhere in the United Kingdom do not make it harder for people to get on the property ladder. That is why I today announced my intention to introduce a supplement to land and buildings transaction tax for those purchasing an additional home for £40,000 or more. Such properties will be subject to a supplement of 3 per cent of the total purchase price, payable in addition to the existing LBTT charge. We will shortly bring forward legislation to seek Parliament's approval to introduce this supplement to ensure that it takes effect from 1 April 2016. In keeping with the Scottish approach to taxation, we will work closely with stakeholders in developing the specific policy and legislative proposals underpinning this. For Scottish landfill tax, I plan to ensure the lower rate of tax to £2.65 per tonne and the standard rate of tax to £84.40 per tonne, with effect from 1 April 2016. Last year, I announced my intention to set the credit rate for the Scottish landfill community's fund 10 per cent higher than the UK equivalent for the first three years. However, the UK Government recently announced plans to drop its equivalent credit rate to 4.2 per cent. I believe that this is the wrong decision for our environment. Therefore, we will maintain the existing credit rate of 5.6 per cent, ensuring that landfill site operators contribute more to community and environmental projects than elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Early this week, we received the report of the cross-party commission on local taxation. We welcomed the fact that four of the five parties in Parliament took part and reached agreement on a set of crucial principles that local tax should be more progressive, broader and more empowering to local government. The Government will now consider this report carefully, and in the new year we will set out plans to reform the council tax in a way that will deliver substantial sustainable council finances and greater fairness for local tax payers. I can also announce today that I intend to enter into a consultation with local government about possible future assignation of a proportion of income tax receipts, thereby giving local authorities an incentive to boost economic growth in their areas. We expect to raise £671 million from the wholly devolved taxes in 2016-17. Those forecasts have been assessed as reasonable by the independent Scottish Fiscal Commission, which will publish its own report setting out this assessment today. I am grateful to the commission for their work and for the scrutiny that they have applied over the past 12 months. As it should, the commission's report challenges us to improve the robustness of our forecasting methodologies, and the Government will do exactly that. For the first time that we are publishing five-year forecasts for the devolved taxes, those forecasts will aid transparency around the medium-term assessment of Scotland's devolved public finances. A strong and sustainable economy lies at the heart of a successful Scotland. Our economic strategy set out our approach to deliver the dual and complementary objectives of tackling inequality and boosting competitiveness. Let me be clear that economic growth gives us the revenues needed to tackle inequality. However, we also believe that tackling economic inequality in turn boosts growth, removing a drag on the economy and boosting prosperity. The draft budget provides the resources to deliver that by supporting innovation, investment, internationalisation and inclusive growth. We will work in partnership with employers, employees and trade unions through the Scottish Business Pledge and the Fair Work Convention to deliver fair work and inclusive growth. One of our most significant investments in the future of Scotland's economy is the delivery of 600 hours of free, high-quality, early learning and childcare for all three and four-year-olds and vulnerable two-year-olds. However, we are going further. We are committed to the ambitious plan to almost double free nursery provision during the next parliamentary session to 1,140 hours. The First Minister set out in the programme for government the priority that we place on educational attainment. Just yesterday, the OECD report examining curriculum for excellence provided real encouragement that Scotland is on the right track in our schools. Just this morning, new figures were published showing record numbers of school leavers in positive destinations, work, education or training. We have a good education system, but we are committed to making it better. We must raise attainment for all and close the gap that has existed for decades between children in our most and least deprived areas. This budget makes provision for that commitment, with £33 million investment in attainment programmes in 2016-17, which will support the four-year 100 million Scottish attainment challenge. We also intend to maintain teacher numbers this year. It reaffirms our commitment to improving the wider education system. We will continue to invest in high-quality schools and community health facilities through our new hub programme of revenue-financed infrastructure investment. In this difficult financial context, I have protected college funding, delivering the budget stability that further education system needs. We will deliver on our promise to expand the education maintenance allowance and modern apprenticeship programmes to help more young people to fulfil their potential and to enter positive, rewarding employment. The Scottish Government has placed the principle of higher education based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay, at the heart of what we believe. I can confirm today that we will continue to fund our commitment to free tuition. We have backed up our commitment to keeping our university's world class by investing more than £4 billion in the higher education sector over the past four years. Now, we will renew our commitment to investing a further £1 billion in 2016-17 to support the continued success of our world class universities, delivering high-quality learning and research excellence. We want to go further. We want to see a new relationship with higher education, a long-term partnership underpinned by on-going significant investment to support the delivery of key shared priorities. That is our ambition, and we welcome the constructive approach that universities have taken as we discuss with them how to make that a reality. Critical to that long-term approach is our investment in higher education research. This budget settlement will enable the core research budget for higher education to be protected as a key investment for the future of Scotland. The Government has always prioritised investment in infrastructure to stimulate the economy. We are on track to build 30,000 affordable homes over the course of this Parliament. We recognise the importance of extending our commitment on housing to create the quality accommodation that people require and to provide continued stimulus to the construction industry. We are committed to building 50,000 new affordable homes during the next Parliament, and I am delighted to announce that, as the first step towards this, we will be increasing the budget for affordable housing next year by £90 million, enabling us to invest around £690 million in housing supply. On fuel poverty, we will continue to invest to help people to have warm affordable homes, building on our achievements to date through our home energy efficiency programme for Scotland. In total, we will be making more than £100 million to tackle fuel poverty and climate change available and help to improve the condition of Scotland's homes. The development of energy efficiency as a national infrastructure priority will create transformational change in improving the energy efficiency and the heating of homes, businesses and public buildings in Scotland, reducing fuel bills and greenhouse gas emissions. Our investment in digital connectivity is central to our ambition of harnessing the opportunities for growth and improving public services across all aspects of Scottish life. We will invest £130 million in Scotland's digital infrastructure next year to help to meet our 2017 target, but 95 per cent of premises in Scotland will have access to next-generation broadband alongside our investment through the emergency services project, which will enhance mobile coverage into the bargain. We will invest almost £1 billion in transport projects. On rail, that will include the completion of the electrification of the Edinburgh to Glasgow rail line. On our roads, we are making progress on Julian the A9, including the construction of the first section between Concraig and Alradi. I can announce today that new projects are now also able to proceed. I am authorising the commencement of works in 2016-17 on the Delrai bypass in Ayrshire, and in light of the excellent progress on the Aberdeen western peripheral route, I am today confirming that work will begin in 2016-17 on the improvements to the Hudigan roundabout in the city of Aberdeen. In addition, the fourth replacement crossing is on track to be completed by the end of 2016, and alongside those major projects, we will invest in the maintenance and operation of Scotland's trunk roads and motorways. Significant investment will also be made to support ferry services with two new 100-metre vessels, earmarked for the sky and western aisles connection and for the addressant to Arran route. We will also continue to support Highlandslands air travel through the air discount scheme, which offers a 50 per cent discount on core airfares. We are committed to a significant programme of investment in Scotland's water and sewage infrastructure for the 2015-21 period worth £3.5 billion and including £250 million to upgrade Glasgow's wastewater infrastructure and improve the environment of the river Clyde and to tackle flooding. On flooding specifically, there have been a number of incidents this year that have caused enormous distress to members of the public. I can announce that in this financial year we will provide £4 million to the local authority areas that have been affected most by the recent flooding in Hoik, Newcastleton, Dumfries, Eileth and other localities to help with recovery and to help households and businesses to access the support that they require. Scotland's businesses are key to creating jobs and boosting prosperity. The draft budget therefore maintains the small business bonus scheme. Nearly 100,000 firms across Scotland will benefit from reduced or zero business rates. The draft budget again matches the English poundage rate. In looking forward, I am mindful of the views and representations of many in the business community about the future of business rates in Scotland. I share with Scottish businesses a recognition that our system of business rates must minimise barriers to investment, be responsive to economic conditions and support long-term economic growth and investment. I can therefore announce that we will launch a review of the non-domestic rates system in Scotland. Over the past two years, the levels of inflation coupled with below-inflation increases in poundage have generated lower non-domestic rates income than anticipated. Those income projections have not kept pace with the benefits to business from the small business bonus scheme. That is why I am proposing today to increase the large business supplement on non-domestic rates and make changes to some other reliefs. Taken together, that will raise around £130 million to fund investment in the economy. The draft budget also recognises the importance of the third sector and the key role that it plays in supporting communities and social enterprise. I have protected the core budget for the third sector. Our economy is now in a sustained period of growth and employment is above pre-recession levels. However, the future health of our economy lies in improving our productivity through greater innovation. We are committing funding of around £345 million to support research and innovation through our enterprise agencies and the Scottish Funding Council. The SFC has committed £124 million of funding over six years to its network of innovation centres, but we believe that our approach to innovation needs greater focus to achieve greater economic impact. The Scottish Government therefore intends to work with our partners, including the enterprise agencies, the Scottish Funding Council and the universities, to align our approach to innovation to pool funding and to simplify the innovation landscape. This ambitious reform, the next in our agenda of reform, will help us to create an innovation environment that drives the development of new products, processes and services through improved collaboration. Those measures capture the agenda of the Government in working to create inclusive growth, one of the two key elements of the budget today. The other element is the reform of our public services. Our public services play a vital role in shaping both our economy and our society by making a major contribution to the wellbeing of our communities, promoting prosperity and enabling people to participate more fully in society. Having removed the ring fencing of local authority budgets in our first term of office, we have encouraged a greater degree of joint working at local level between public bodies, with a strong focus on meeting the needs of individual citizens. The Christie commission in 2011 reinforced that approach with its emphasis on integration of public services and a decisive shift towards preventative spending. Since then, we have reformed the delivery of college education and the police and fire services with greater efficiency as a result. This budget underscores our commitment to continue on this journey of reform. We will take steps to extend digital applications in public services, increase the use of shared services, secure further value from procurement, make more effective use of our public assets and reduce overlap between public services. Presiding Officer, our police service plays a critical role in protecting our communities. In the past few years, our police service has undergone difficult but necessary reform. It is now time to build on that. I am pleased to confirm today that we will provide real-terms protection to the front-line policing resource budget next year and, if we are elected in May for every year of the next Parliament, a boost of £100 million over that period. When the Parliament passed the legislation for a single police force, it agreed that this current financial year would effectively mark the end of the time-limited police reform budget. However, given the challenges facing our police, particularly arising from the current security situation, I am announcing further support today. Instead of removing the reform budget as Parliament intended, in order to consolidate the reforms and to support the work of the police, I am committing a further £55 million next year to this important task of community safety. In all of those reforms, our objective is to provide coherent public services underpinned by an approach based on partnership. From our earliest reform of removing ring fencing, the Government has invested significant importance in our partnership with local government. In the period 2012 to 2016, local government funding settlements have been maintained on a like-for-like basis, with extra resources allocated to deal with additional responsibilities. Compare that to local government in England, who faced a real-terms cut in funding of 27.4 per cent over 2011 to 2015 and further reductions in this and in the next financial year. Local government has been a founding partner with the Government in the reform of health and social care services. Today, the Government is making a radical reform to the way that social care is paid for. The Government intends to allocate £250 million of new funding support from the health service into social care in 2016-17. The fundamental realignment of resources will build the capacity of community-based services and enact the most significant reform in health and social care since the creation of the national health service in Scotland in 1948. It will mean that fewer people need to go to hospital, but it will also ensure that, where hospital is necessary, people will return home more quickly. It addresses the underlying reality of social care and health integration. The old boundary between NHS and local government spending, the boundary that has stymied so many attempts to improve care over decades, ceases to exist. While the budget delivers a strong but challenging financial settlement for local government, we must recognise that the substantial investment and reform in social care will support the delivery of that essential service. We will now engage in consultation with local government over the terms and implementation of the local government finance settlement in advance of stage 3 consideration in February. The key to those discussions is the focus on reform. Local government are essential partners in ensuring that the reform agenda leads to the creation of sustainable public services. They are our partners, and we will agree with them how best to deliver that realignment of resources. That brings me, Presiding Officer, to the overall health budget. This Government is absolutely committed to a well-funded national health service. I can announce that I am allocating today more than £500 million to NHS budgets, resulting in total planned spending of nearly £13 billion next year, an increase of 6.5 per cent on comparable figures for 2015-16. However, let me make this clear. The nature and scale of the challenges facing our national health service, in particular the challenge of an ageing population, mean that additional money alone will not equip it properly for the future. To be blunt, if all we do is fund our national health service to deliver more of the same, it will not cope with the pressure that it faces. To protect our national health service, we need to do more than just give it extra money. We need to use that money to deliver fundamental reform and change the way that our national health service delivers care. That is why the reforms that this additional investment will support are just as important, perhaps more so than the scale of the resources involved. In addition to the fundamental realignment of social care, this new investment will support two further reforms that will shape our national health service and equip it for the future. We intend to transform primary care with an extra £45 million next year to fund improvements and develop new models of care with multidisciplinary teams working together to meet the needs of their communities. Secondly, we will build additional elective capacity to meet the growing needs of an older population. We will invest £200 million over the next five years in six new treatment centres. That will equip the NHS to carry out increased numbers of hip and knee replacements and cataract operations in a way that does not simply add pressure to our emergency hospitals. Investment for reform is how we protect our national health service for the long-term, and this is a budget that shows yet again that our precious national health service is safe in the hands of this Government now and in the future. We are committed to real-terms increases in the national health service budget, not just in 2016-17 but for the duration of the next Parliament should we be re-elected in May. As the UK spending review was delivered much later than normal, forcing the Scottish Parliament to implement a truncated process for review and scrutiny, it is not practical to undertake a full multi-year spending review in the time available. Furthermore, Scottish ministers continue to discuss the fiscal framework that will underpin future Scottish block grants from the UK as part of the Scotland Bill. Any agreement will have a material impact on the powers and resources available to Scotland. It is, however, possible to set out our vision and key priorities for future years. We will continue to reject austerity. We will continue to prioritise investment in the public services that people value the most, and we will undertake ambitious reforms to ensure that those services remain sustainable and deliver improved outcomes. We will invest in our schools to ensure that every child in Scotland has the opportunity to fulfil their potential. We will support the Scottish attainment challenge and implement the recommendations of the commission for developing Scotland's young workforce. We will also create a stronger, more inclusive economy through investing in innovation, internationalisation and our infrastructure. We will support job creation, encourage employers in moving to the living wage and improve the productivity of Scotland's workforce. We will tackle inequalities and make Scotland a fairer, more equal country, including using our new welfare powers to create a more coherent and responsive package of intervention. What we will not do is follow in the UK Government's footsteps and implement austerity and target the poorest and the most vulnerable people in our society. That brings me to the final theme of this budget statement. The welfare reform agenda of the UK Government is presenting real difficulties for hard-pressed families in Scotland and impacting on some of the most vulnerable in our communities. In contrast, the Scottish Government will continue to do whatever it can to protect family incomes. I can therefore confirm today that we maintain our commitment to support people in Scotland affected by the UK Government's welfare cuts through measures including the allocation of £38 million to the Scottish welfare fund, up to £343 million for the council tax reduction scheme and £35 million to ensure that nobody pays the bedroom tax. We will continue to help family budgets through initiatives such as free prescriptions and regular eye checks, free concessory travel to older, disabled and young people and ensuring that free school meals continue for children in P1 to P3. Our public sector pay policy for 2016-17 targets support on those on low incomes, including requiring that all employers pay their Scottish living wage, raising to £22,000 the low-pay threshold beneath which employees receive a minimum pay increase of more than 1 per cent and maintaining the no compulsory redundancy policy of the Government. Free personal and nursing care, one of the key achievements of the Scottish Parliament, will also be maintained as a vital part of the reformed community-based health and social care service. I now turn to the council tax. This week's report on the local government taxation commission said that the current council tax system is unfair. It is right. It also said that many people pay too much and again they are right. This government is committed to protecting household budgets and in this budget I have already frozen income tax rates. We proposed in 2011 to freeze the council tax in every budget of this Parliament. I can confirm today that we will keep that promise and freeze the council tax next year. That means that council tax will be frozen for nine consecutive years, saving the average household £1,500 in total on a band D bill. That is a dual freeze on both income tax and the council tax, helping families to weaken and to weak out the length and breadth of Scotland. In the draft budget, the Scottish Government is acting to promote our economy, deliver opportunities for all and to protect and reform our public services for the future. In challenging times, it is a budget for growth and reform. It is a budget for Scotland and I commend it to Parliament. The Deputy First Minister will now take questions on the issues raised in the statement and tend to allow you around 60 minutes for questions after which we will move on to the next side of business. It would be helpful if members wish to ask a question where to press the request speak button now, and I call Jack Bailey. Let me thank the finance secretary for advance sight of his statement, well at least part of it, so much hidden and we are not just talking about the redacted statement. Can I note my disappointment that, certainly in my memory, this is the first time in the history of this Parliament that budget announcements have been redacted in this way and I think that that is genuinely disappointing. Presiding Officer, this is a historic budget, I believe, probably the most significant since the Scottish Parliament opened in 1999. With major new tax and welfare powers coming to Scotland, the finance secretary could have used today to outline detailed plans to end austerity and close the gap between the richest and the rest in Scotland. The finance secretary claims to have delivered on that in his statement, but he is not rejecting austerity, he is simply managing it. Scottish Labour are calling for a genuine anti-austerity budget and a long-term plan for Scotland, but instead what we have from the SNP is a budget for an election only, short-term with all the cuts hidden away, but we know that the cuts are still to come. The finance minister should today have laid out plans across his whole budget for at least three years. We should have seen a Scottish spending review. He selected the good news to tell us, but hidden away the bad. Austerity hidden is not austerity avoided and people deserve to know the truth. Indeed, the SNP credibility on the economy is being questioned by experts. Growth is down. We are lagging behind the rest of the United Kingdom. Oil prices are at their lowest level for decades, and employment statistics published this morning are down and still below pre-recession levels. After nine years, the finance secretary has only just discovered that he can do something about productivity. I say to him, as gently as I can, that a freeze is not progressive. A freeze actually doesn't help the poorest people against austerity. The Scottish Government has given us recycled announcements. They have told us what budgets they are increasing but not which budgets are being cut. The finance secretary says that he is protecting schools, but the headline education budget is cut. He says that he is increasing health and in particular social care, but at the same time he is slashing the budgets of councils that deliver for local people. The experts at IPPR Scotland have said that the cuts are most significant in 2017-18 and 2018-19. Those are the hidden cuts or hidden tax rises that the SNP is not telling us about before May. Here we are, the most significant budget in Scotland's history, delivered by a party that promised to stand up for Scotland against Tory austerity. Does it deliver fairer taxes? No. Does it deliver a longer-term plan for Scotland? No. Does it deliver an anti-austerity alternative? The answer to that is no. After nine years in power, a majority in this Parliament and more powers than ever before, isn't it the case that, in substantial areas of this budget, John Swinney is simply copying George Osborne? That's not anti-austerity. Surely Scotland deserves better than that. On the very first point that Jackie Baillie raised, I think that this highlights the atrocious lack of communication within the Labour Party, because this is not the first time that a financial statement has been redacted. It was redacted last year by agreement amongst the business managers of Parliament so that I was able to announce to Parliament absolute, straight to Parliament the income tax rates that were being put forward. I can't actually remember who Labour's finance spokesperson was last year. I've gone through so many over the years. If Jackie Baillie had talked to whoever it was last year, they would have found out that the information was redacted last year. I think that it's a basic illustration of how lacking in detail Jackie Baillie is on the handling of these issues. In the several minutes of her contribution to Parliament, there was not a single alternative proposition from Jackie Baillie. This is a character trait of Jackie Baillie. All that Jackie Baillie delivers, all the Labour Party delivers, is abuse and hectoring of other people, and they don't produce an alternative of what they would do differently. This is now the chance for Jackie Baillie to redeem herself. This is her opportunity during the budget process. Now that I have published hundreds of pages of financial information of the choices that we have made, Jackie Baillie can now look through it and decide what she would do differently, what taxes she would put up, what budgets she would change and what other alternatives she would make to the financial plans that I have put forward. What I have put forward is a budget that protects the incomes of the lowest-income households in Scotland. That is the most effective way that we can use the powers available to us today to secure the best interests of the people that we are likely to serve in this Parliament. I thank the finance secretary for an advance copy of his statement. This is a historic budget for the Scottish Government. For the first time since devolution, the Scottish Government's finance secretary is not simply concerned with the distribution of the resources available to him. For the first time, he has a substantial power to vary the total resource in his budget by mending the rate of income tax. Today, the finance secretary has chosen to set the Scottish rate of income tax at the same rate that is payable elsewhere in the United Kingdom. We applaud that decision. We do not believe that hard-pressed families in Scotland should pay higher taxes than those elsewhere in the United Kingdom, but it cannot be forgotten that the finance secretary had a choice in the matter, and he chose not to increase the resource available to him by levying additional taxes. For all that we hear about austerity and swinging cuts, we need to remember that the Scottish Government's total budget for the coming year is in cash terms nearly £400 million higher than in the current year. In real terms, there is a small decrease, but that decrease is substantially less than the finance secretary's most recent underspend. In that context, any talk of swinging cuts simply looks ridiculous. However, if it is still the SNP's position that the Scottish budget is too low, then the solution is now in their own hands. The finance secretary could have chosen to raise the rate of income tax, and he decided himself not to do so. For years, he has portrayed himself as the prisoner of Westminster austerity, but now that he has been given the key to the door of his cell, he has chosen not to use it. I trust that we will hear no more from the SNP about austerity or Westminster cuts when they themselves have made the choice not to increase the size of the budget available. They had their chance and they flunked it. The Scottish Conservatives will carefully scrutinise the detail of the budget that has been presented, and we will, as ever, suggest constructive changes when we have done so. For the moment, we welcome the extra cash for housing, and we welcome the proposed review of non-domestic rates—a straight lift from the Conservative general election manifesto, where the Conservatives lead it seems the SNP follow. Although it is disappointing that there is no restoration of the SNP's swinging cuts to college budgets. Finally, I am disappointed that the finance secretary has not brought forward greater changes to land and buildings transaction tax, given that the existing system is already having a detrimental impact on the market, particularly for larger houses in many parts of Scotland, and we are already looking at a significant shortfall in terms of the sums previously predicted to be raised from residential property. Although I welcome him following George Orr's born's lead in increasing by 3 per cent the supplement for second homes, showing it once again where the Conservatives lead the SNP follow. I know that it is early days in the scrutiny of the budget, but there was a fundamental problem and flaw in the argument that Mr Fraser deployed that I had not taken any steps to increase the amount of money available to me. I have taken the step to increase the take that we expect to levy on business rates by £130 million. It was not sneaked in on page 150 of the document. I expressed those words to Parliament very directly—£130 million. All that starting preamble of total inflated nonsense from Mr Fraser is punctured by that one little fact that I have used the opportunity to increase the money available to me. We can ignore the first part of Mr Fraser's rant. We will not ignore the last part of Mr Fraser's rant. We will now dismantle the last part of Mr Fraser's rant. Mr Fraser might have wanted me to use the Scottish rate of income tax to increase the level of tax that might have been levied on individuals. Well, Mr Fraser was arguing that I should have taken that step. If I had done that, and I could see why it would have suited Mr Fraser, it would have led to a percentage increase in the current income tax of high earners of 2.6 per cent. For low-income households, it would have increased their tax take by 5 per cent. There is Mr Fraser protecting the rich and punishing the poor, just like the Tories always do. As for land and buildings transaction tax, I stood here last year and I was lectured ad infinitum by Mr Brown about the fact that we would never raise the taxes that we said we would raise. I have put on the record the six-month and seven-month performance that demonstrates that the tax take is on course to be delivered. As for distorting the market, let me just share a quote with Parliament. Christine Campbell, the mangym director of Scotland of your move, said that LBTT has given middle and lower tears of the market a new lease of life. The rapid growth in Scotland is grounded in the new LBTT rates, which are stimulating demand at the bottom and middle rungs of the property ladder. That is what I was determined to do. Of course, here we see the fault line again. I am pleased that the bottom and the middle of the market are doing so well and that the Tories are only concerned about the top. I look forward to the detailed scrutiny of the budget, because this Government has put forward a budget that is on the side of fairness in society, on the side of improving opportunities in the economy and will defend that to Parliament and the people of Scotland. Mark McDonald, to be followed by Willie Rennie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. As the MSP for the Hading and Roundabout, I welcome the announcement from the Deputy First Minister of the Works of Wagon in 2016-17, but he mentioned the requirement to protect public services through reform. Can he advise the way in which this will continue on the building—this will continue to build on the Christie Commission agenda as pursued via reforms to police, fire, health and social care services? Of course, we are introduced by this Government and supported by the Labour Party. First of all, I am pleased that we have managed to signal the start of the work at the Hading and Roundabout. I can never hear or experience the Hading and Roundabout without hearing of my dear colleague Brian Adam, who championed that particular cause. In relation to Mr McDonald's substantive question on public service reform, the Christie Commission provided the Parliament with an excellent agenda that is structured around the integration of services at local level, about the breaking down of boundaries in public services and about ensuring that we had a focus on the needs of individuals. That approach is at the heart of the reform agenda that we have taken forward on police and fire, on health and social care, and I am delighted to see the progress that can be made in taking forward such a fundamental reform to benefit individuals in Scotland. I thank the Deputy First Minister for an advanced sight of his statement. There are many things I am sure within the budget that Liberal Democrats can support. As always, we will make a very positive constructive case for investment in key areas such as mental health, childcare and particularly infrastructure for the north-east and Highlands and Islands. We will continue to be constructive. I think that what is quite clear is that, since the last time the Deputy First Minister delivered his budget, employment has gone down in Scotland. Fewer people are now in work. I think that that clearly shows that we cannot trust the SNP on the economy. I do not think that we can rely on the SNP on mental health either, because it has cut the share of the NHS budget that is spent on mental health, too. In childcare, the record is pretty woeful. It cannot even deliver on the current commitments to childcare that it has made in previous budgets. On the police, the police of all things, the police reforms have not saved the money that they were intended to do, so he is now having to patch up the police budget covering up the mistakes of the past. I listen carefully to what the Deputy First Minister said about increasing taxes. On business rates, he was quite clear that the income has not raised what he expected it to do, so all he is doing is plugging the hole that was there before it has not raised the money that he was expecting. The Deputy First Minister has spent his entire political life campaigning for more tax powers. What does he do when he gets them? Nothing, no change, the same rate, exactly the same as in England. How can the Deputy First Minister tell the chamber that he is rejecting austerity when he has not raised a single penny more, even though he has the tax powers to do something about it? Let me just work my way through the different issues that Willie Rennie raised. First of all, on mental health, there is an additional £50 million in the budget on mental health. It brings that total to £150 million, which I hope he will welcome. On his point about employment, Mr Rennie might not be looking at the data this morning, but employment in Scotland is at 74.3 per cent, 10,000 higher than a year ago in Scotland. That is the highest employment rate—it is higher than the employment rate in the rest of the United Kingdom. I would have thought that that would have been welcomed by Mr Rennie. On the question of the police, again, with all that Mr Rennie has said about the police and all that he demands that we take action, we have protected the real-terms increase in the police budget, and I have put in resources to ensure that the police can deal with some of the challenges that they are facing. Is Mr Rennie so grudging that he cannot applaud the decisions that the Government has taken? We could have spent it on something else, and Mr Rennie would have been here demanding more money for the police. The approach lacks a bit of credibility. The final point is on the issue about tax. I took care in my statement—a substantial amount of time in my statement today—to explain the rationale behind the decision on tax. Because the strip powers are so constrained, we could not increase tax for people who are earning high levels of income without increasing tax for people on low incomes. I have sat in this Parliament for years and have been lectured by the Liberal Democrats about the importance of protecting people on low incomes, and I have just done that. Again, I might have thought that I might have got a bit of encouragement from Mr Rennie. What I have said to Parliament is that we will—subject to us getting a satisfactory agreement on the fiscal framework, where we will have greater clarity about the size of the budget in the years to come, because that is a material point that we all have to wrestle with—that the fiscal framework could vary the amount of money that we have available at our hands and under our control in this Parliament. I will come back to Parliament before the end of the parliamentary session and set out our longer-term intentions on the exercise of the tax power. We will do all those things, and, hopefully, it might get a better welcome from Mr Rennie if he is feeling more charitable when that day comes. As members will imagine, I have a large number of members who wish to ask a question. Can I ask for brief questions and brief answers so that we can get through it? I warmly welcome the very positive statement from the cabinet secretary, in particular the excellent news from my constituency of a new address in Taborodic Ferry, and the Del Rai bypass and den realignment, the construction of which was held up by a public local inquiry, will begin work on the site in the next financial year. I understand that the road orders were laid in 2 December and come into force today. Numerous constituents have asked when work will begin on site regarding the bypass. Can the cabinet secretary please advise the chamber? I cannot give Mr Gibson a definitive date for that work commencing, but it will be during the financial year 2016. As he says, all of the processes of authorisation are complete, and we will be able to start construction during 2016-17, and the resources around the budget to enable that to happen. Iain Gray, full by Clare Adamson. Thank you. The Deputy First Minister talked of investment in education, but we know that since 2011 this Government has cut education spending, even as it was increased elsewhere in the UK. In this budget, colleges and universities face real-terms cuts again, and local authorities responsible for schools face significant reductions in budgets. Has the Deputy First Minister not failed yet again to protect education? What I would say to Iain Gray—again, I might have thought that Iain Gray would have welcomed the fact that the Government has put in place protection for the college budget, that we have been able to protect the higher education budget, that we have put extra resources into the attainment activities and ensure that we work relentlessly to close the gap in attainment between children from the less deprived and more deprived areas. I simply put the challenge back to Iain Gray that I put to Jackie Baill. Iain Gray, of course, has some experience of this question. He knows the way that this works. There are choices that have to be made, and I have set out what I think is a balanced package that enables us to invest in key areas of activity, including on educational services within Scotland. If Iain Gray wants to recommend and argue for an alternative to be taken, the opportunity is open to him to do exactly that. I warmly welcome the increase in the budget for affordable homes by £90 million to £690 million. Is the Deputy First Minister able to tell us of the 50,000 new affordable homes promise in the term of the next Parliament? How many will be for social rent? The estimates are still estimates, but we anticipate that to be around about 35,000 houses for social rent, which will be a 75 per cent increase on the previous target that we had in the previous programme. The Deputy First Minister was rightly, in my view, made protection of health spending in Scotland a key priority of his Government. However, can the Deputy First Minister please put that into context for the chamber, given the scale of real terms reductions to the Scottish budget imposed by the UK Government? What has been the real terms increase in health spending under this SNP Government? The budget for the health service has increased in real terms throughout the SNP Government since 2011. We have committed ourselves in this settlement to do exactly that. We have committed ourselves, if re-elected, in May to continue that performance. It is important that the health service is able to rely on a strong financial settlement but equally—I laboured this point in my statement—that the health service is able to undertake a programme of reform to ensure that it has the capacity and the service design to meet the needs of a changing population and the changing requirements of the people of our country. The cabinet secretary said that he was protecting the higher education budget, yet, according to page 55, it falls by £35 million in cash terms for resource. Can he explain what he means by protecting it? He also said that he was protecting policing with a boost of more than £100 million, yet the Scottish police authority budget appears to have a real-terms budget cut of £12 million, so can he explain how it is a boost of £100 million? On two points, what I said in my statement was that we had protected the higher education research budget, which is exactly what we had done. We will check the record, but if I did not use those precise words, I apologise if I gave an incorrect answer. In my statement, I said that we had protected the higher education research budget. If I did not get those, I will check the record and see whether it is correct, but that is exactly the point that I was making. On the second point on the police, our commitment was to protect in real terms the policing resource budget. If Mr Brown looks at the document, he will see that the resource budget of the Scottish police authority has increased in real terms by 1.7 per cent. In addition to that, the Government has put £55 million into policing this year that the police service could not reasonably have expected because the financial memorandum, which I am sure Mr Brown must have scrutinised in the finance committee and voted upon in this Parliament, envisaged the removal of that reform budget by the next financial year. We have given a very strong financial settlement to the police service both by increasing the resource budget in real terms and also by ensuring the extra injection of £55 million that the police service could not have expected to be receiving. A few moments ago, the cabinet secretary was rather boastful about the clarity of his statement on business rates, but I noticed that he studiously avoided giving a figure for the local government settlement, relying instead on euphemistic terms such as strong and challenging. The reason is clear that those who rely on the public services delivered by our local authority colleagues are clearly the biggest losers. If I may say so, the cabinet secretary knows that, in his own words, those are the services that are relied on by some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society. We are talking about day centres for people with learning difficulties, care homes for the elderly, library services and learning support for our children. Can I ask the cabinet secretary a cursory glance at the figures that makes it look like there is a 6.1 per cent real terms cut to local authorities? Can I ask the cabinet secretary whether he agrees with that figure, and if so, why is he insisting on imposing grossly disproportionate cuts to our poorest communities? To understand the figures, I will go through some of the detail with Mr Mackintosh. The local government resource support from the government will be reduced by £350 million. The capital budget will be reduced by £150 million, but that is a temporary factor. I have guaranteed local government that they have a current guarantee that they will have access to 26 per cent of the capital resources that are available to the Scottish Government in our capital deal allocation from the UK government. I have told local government that I will not only assure that to 2018-19, which is what we previously had agreed, but I will extend that a further year into 2019-20. Although the budget is lower this year, it will be replaced in later years as part of the capital programme. The 2015-16 capital budget of local government is inflated because of exactly the same reprofile of budgets that took place. The 2015-16 budget is much higher than the trend budget would be, and some of that accounts for the difference in the figures that we have in front of us. The key point in answering Mr Mackintosh's point is around the issue of reform of public services. We have to be able, in the arrangements that we have available to us, to secure greater impact from the resources that are available to us. That is why we are reforming health and social care, to improve the outcomes for individuals, to give people access to integrated services and to ensure that the resources that are available can have a greater impact and to cover a much greater range of services to be delivered. That is why the Government has put in £250 million of new resources through the health service to create stronger health and social care budgets that we will discuss with local authorities in addition to the local government settlement as it is set out in the budget document. The opportunity is available to Mr Mackintosh to say how things should be different. Again, Mr Mackintosh has been one of my Labour counterparts in the past. Mr Mackintosh knows the form here. He can come forward with alternatives to the choices that we have made, but at the heart of our approach to local government is the working in partnership with local government to deliver reform and to deliver integrated health and social care services. At the finance committee, we have had a number of witnesses concerning the Scottish rate of income tax. I am sure that the cabinet secretary is happy to know that the STUC agrees with him that the 10p rate should stay the same. We have had other witnesses who have said that the SRIT would be a bit progressive if we increased it. I wonder how we would respond to that kind of witness. The analysis that I have available to me, which I shared with Parliament just a moment ago in relation to my answer to Mr Fraser, is that by exercising to increase the Scottish rate of income tax, we would be accounting for a greater proportion of—an increase in the Scottish rate of income tax would be a greater burden and relate to a greater proportion of an individual's tax payment on a low income versus somebody in a higher income. That, to me, rather makes the case that the current Scottish rate of income tax power is a blunt instrument for us to deploy. What we should do is provide the clarity that I have provided today and then consider once we see the financial arrangements for the wider tax powers that will come from the as a consequence of the Scotland bill and the fiscal framework, how we can most effectively exercise those to ensure that the Government's principal position of supporting progressive taxation can be deployed as effectively as we can. Recently, in this chamber, we had a debate on the 16 Days of Activism campaign, which marked international day of the elimination of violence against women. We have seen record numbers of funding to tackle violence against women and girls and a clear commitment from this Government to do as much as it can. Can the Deputy First Minister give us some insight into what funding will be available to continue this very valuable work? The Government has maintained the level of spend on the equalities budget at £20.3 million, which is the same level as in 2015-16, and that budget will support front-line provision, particularly in relation to violence against women and girls. In addition to that, as in the current year, the justice portfolio will make funding available in addition to core baselines towards the First Minister's commitment to £20 million over 2015-18 to tackle violence against women, which is a central priority of the Government's equalities agenda. Paul Martham, followed by Rodri Cymru. The cabinet secretary advises that he wants to create a fair and equal society in Scotland. Can I ask him to start in Glasgow where more than 197,000 people live in poverty? Despite that, it is estimated that Glasgow City Council will see a funding cut of more than £120 million being shortchanged once again. I wonder if the cabinet secretary will agree with me that we should get a fair, proportionate and protected budget in Glasgow to tackle poverty and create a fair and equal society in Glasgow that we would be so inspired to. I have taken a decision in relation to the local government settlement, which has set the funding floor in the local authority settlement in a fashion that will have the effect of protecting the city of Glasgow from reductions in the budget that would have happened otherwise had I not intervened to secure that support for the city of Glasgow. The First Minister and I have been determined to make sure that the work that is able to be undertaken in Glasgow to tackle some of the persistent inequalities that have existed there can be taken forward by the city council and by other public authorities, and that will be made a great deal more practical and possible by the intervention that I have made on the establishment of the funding floor for local government within Scotland. I welcome the additional £50 million for mental health spending over the next five years. Can you tell the chamber a little bit more about what that is targeted to achieve? The primary focus of that activity will be on supporting a variety of different interventions, child and adolescent mental health services and improvements in primary care, with a particular focus on removing or reducing the waiting times that individuals experience, which we all recognise has been a particular challenge and difficulty for many individuals in different parts of the country. The Deputy First Minister flags up a review of non-domestic rates, as well as the idea of assigning a share of income tax to local government, yet that is just days after the local tax commission reported. That seems out of keeping with the cross-party approach to the issue of local government finance. I note that the small increase in energy efficiency is clearly better than a small decrease would have been, but the cabinet secretary describes that as a transformational approach. He does not acknowledge that, in the wake of the Paris agreement, some of us were expecting something rather more dramatic than that. Throughout the budget, there is consistent and strong support for a range of measures to deliver on our climate change agenda and to tackle the issue of carbon emissions. That approach runs through a range of different policy priorities and policy choices that have been made. In relation to the point that Mr Harvey raised about the cross-party agreement on local taxation, we have valued the work that has been undertaken by the commission very much. Mr Beagie, the Minister for Local Government and Planning and Councillor David O'Neill, who was joint chair of the commission, are to be applauded for producing a very thoughtful and comprehensive piece of work that I think involves, informs the debate and the choices that have got to be made. Ultimately, it is up to political parties to look at the material in that report and to consider what propositions they wish to put to the people. That is what I am signalling that the Scottish Government will do. What Mr Harvey will find is that there is a willingness on the part of the Government to engage constructively, as we evidence during the local tax commission, to find a way in which we design a system that is fairer and that is related to the ability to pay, and that is exactly what the Government will do in the analysis that we undertake of this work. Presiding Officer, many of our constituents are suffering because of swinging Tory social security cuts. Can the Deputy First Minister assure me that his budget will continue to protect people from the worst excesses of the Tory Government's social security cuts and austerity agenda through welfare mitigation measures? I set out in my statement a number of areas where we are essentially operating in welfare mitigation territory, whether that is about the council tax reduction scheme, whether that is about the mitigation of the bedroom tax or the establishment of the Scottish welfare fund. I set out to Parliament a very challenging financial settlement because of the pressures with which we are wrestling and the reductions in our budget, but we have made our choices to protect individuals who are affected by welfare cuts to the best of our ability and the Government will continue to do so. Clearly, there will be a range of further powers that will come to the Scottish Government in due course, and we will find the most effective and appropriate ways to take decisions to exercise those powers to support individuals who may be vulnerable as a consequence. In his statement, the cabinet secretary said that he will increase the budget for affordable housing next year by £90 million, enabling him to invest £690 million in housing supply. On page 85 of the budget document, the figure projected for the next year is £695.4 million, just £1 million more than the budget figure for last year. Can the cabinet secretary tell me if he's got his sums wrong or if there's a £90 million scalp coming for some subheading? There will clearly be other priorities within the housing budget that have been prevalent in 2015-16, but the choices that we have made for 2016-17 is that we will allocate the additional £90 million in that budget to support affordable housing and enable us to deliver the improvements and the growth in affordable housing that so many people in Scotland are looking for. Willie Coffey, followed by Malcolm Tism. Recognising the importance of our colleges to the economy and the deputy first minister outline what funding has been provided for the FE sector in his budget. We've secured in the budget £530 million of resource budget, which is to support expenditure act 2015-16 levels. We've also provided £24.4 million of resource budget to support long-term investment in the capital sector of the college sector, as well as £27 million for further education capital spending. Is the cabinet secretary aware of the Audit Scotland report on health and social care integration earlier this month, which highlighted the failure of health and local government up till now to make progress on pooled budgets for the integration bodies? How therefore does he know that the £250 million that we welcome for the integration bodies will actually be additional, rather than something that is just deducted from any plan contributions by health and local government, especially since local government is being hammered today in terms of its revenue budgets? Does he not need to do more to support social care, including through the national care workers guarantee of a living wage, as proposed by the Labour Party? The first thing that I want to say is that it is supposed to challenge the rather gloomy presentation of the Audit Scotland report that Mr Chisholm put forward. It's quite unlike him, actually. The Audit Scotland report highlighted that substantial progress was being made on a very significant reform that, frankly, we've waited a long time to deliver within Scotland. The Audit Scotland report recognised that we needed to give this process greater impetus. I don't think that anybody could look at my budget statement today and say that the Government has done anything other than give this greater impetus by the choices that we have made. The substantial investment that's going to be made in health and social care I think will be warmly welcomed around the country. I hear Mr Chisholm, and he's been a member of Parliament for many, many years. He also knows the way that this works. If there are choices to be made, I would like to hear from the Labour Party what alternative choices they would like to make. I've heard Johann Lamont muttering. I do hope that she's going to get to ask a question today. I've heard her shouting at me all the way through my budget statement today. I do hope that we get to hear what she's got to say, because I've not quite made it out, but the choices there for the Labour Party to decide how they wish to reallocate the resources that I have allocated today and what different choices they want to arrive at. Stuart McMillan, followed by Chick Brody. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I welcome the statement and can the Deputy First Minister inform the chamber all the anticipated benefits to Scotland's elderly with the £200 million investment in six diagnostic anti-treatment centres? With the challenges that we face in relation to the ageing of the population, there is a greater demand for certain hospital procedures, which are generally relatively low risk. If they are undertaken in an emergency hospital environment, there are great risks that those operations are cancelled and that we do not have the necessary efficiency and throughput of cases that we can have in the elective centres. The elective centres of that whole concept has delivered much greater effectiveness in the way in which those services have been delivered, and that's why the Government has given the commitment to open up that area of activity to more substantial investment and substantial capability to create the capacity for individuals to receive the treatment that they require in a timely fashion without disruption to emergency care within Scotland. We acknowledge the year-on-year increase in the latest proposal from CSR in capital expenditure. The capital allocation will still be £600 million or 70 per cent lower in real terms than it was in 2010-2011. We welcome the news of the 8,000 reduction in employment announced today in the high rate of employment. Can I yet ask the cabinet secretary, given the strong link between capital expenditure and long-term employment, what sectors of the economy will the Government prioritise in capital terms to maximise further long-term employment opportunities? The capital programme takes forward a range of different priorities. A number are focused on strengthening the transport infrastructure, which is central to the connectivity of the country. There is also significant investment in digital connectivity, which we recognise, if used properly and effectively, can be an enormous economic asset and resource for people in Scotland. We are very struck by the economic data that shows that, in the recent economic downturn, areas of the country that normally have suffered severe economic hardship from economic downturn in the past have managed to overcome that. I ascribe that principally towards the effectiveness of digital connectivity and improving opportunities for people in Scotland. Those are some of the key priorities that will form part of the capital investment programme for the Government. In the light of the global agreement in Paris committing all countries to reducing emissions to 1.5 centigrade, what specific new measures has, or indeed would the cabinet secretary consider as part of this budget process, to address this worldwide recognition of the imperative for a faster change to a low-carbon economy? For instance, possibly a low-carbon focus for the innovation centres and for a specific support for research and innovation. I agree entirely with Claudia Beamish's point. One of the disappointments that I feel about the United Kingdom Government's comprehensive spending review in November was the cancellation of the Peterhead investment, which I thought was an excellent example of long-term investment that would create a technology of global potential and capability for Scotland. It is a real missed opportunity, but Claudia Beamish raises the importance of making sure that some of the investment that we make in the research process is targeted on achieving some of those gains. I give a warm welcome to the point that has been made by Claudia Beamish. It is an illustration of how we have to make sure that, in different areas of policy, we absorb the necessity to respond constructively to the Paris challenge that has been placed in front of all of us. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Later today, the Parliament will be debating the Stage 1 of the Land Reform Bill. A key ambition of the Scottish Government's radical plans is to see dramatically more land and community ownership. What provisions has the Deputy First Minister made to increase the funds available to support community ownership and reach the Government's 1 million-acre targets? In the budget, we make provision for an increase in the Scottish land fund from £3 million to £10 million to enable more of the very successful instances of land acquisition by communities to take their course and to then lead to the flourishing of the wider economic activity that I know that Mr Gibson has championed in the way that he has taken forward the interests of his constituents and his political interests in the course of the parliamentary term. Thank you. Will the Deputy First Minister be able to elaborate on how this budget will ensure that we continue to make progress on closing the gap in education attainment between children from the most and least deprived areas? The learning budget is being set at £33 million, and that will contain the resources that will enable us to deliver some of the priorities of the national attainment fund. That is the Scottish attainment challenge, I should say. That budget will be the key area where we try to drive the reforms that are necessary to close the gap that has caused such concern for many years within Scotland and to create better opportunities for young people in Scotland. Last week, I asked the Deputy First Minister whether he felt that the funding allocation was appropriate to Glasgow for kinship care, given that Glasgow had 32 per cent of kinship carers and only 15 per cent of funding. He explained to me at that time that this was because of an agreement with COSLA. I see nothing in the draft budget in the cursory consideration that I have been able to give it since receiving it this afternoon that suggests that that situation has changed. It may be that this is an agreement with COSLA, but can the Deputy First Minister indicate today whether he thinks that it is fair to Glasgow and its kinship carers? I was very struck by the point that Patricia Ferguson made last week. I looked at it very carefully because, on the face value, it did not strike me as being fair, the arrangement that she cited to me. When I looked at it, I had essentially two options. I could have rejected that recommendation from the Settlement and Distribution group or, alternatively, I could have taken the decision that I have taken, which I explained to Mr Martin, of setting the floor at a level that would give a substantial amount of protection, much greater protection to Glasgow than if I just remedied the issue that Patricia Ferguson raised with me last week. Essentially, in short, the decision that I took that I have recounted to Mr Martin in his question was to set the local government floor in a fashion to protect the city of Glasgow from a substantial reduction in its budget, and that is of a much greater magnitude than the issue that Patricia Ferguson has raised with me. I am happy to explain in more detail to Patricia Ferguson the thinking that I went into, but I want to reassure her that, when I heard what she said to me last week, I was concerned by its contents. I have looked into the detail of that, and I have put in place a solution that I think is substantially better for Glasgow than just remedying the one issue that Patricia Ferguson raised with me.