 I cannot express strongly enough my disappointment at information about this afternoon's statement appearing in the media before being given to the Parliament. I have spoken to the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister to express my concern in the strongest possible concerns and they have given me a category assurance that this information was not shared by the Government. In the interests of parliamentary scrutiny and so that members are not disadvantaged, I will allow the statement to be made so that full information about the budget is available to members, public services and the public. I am grateful to you for your ruling on this matter, but you may not be aware that in the course of the last few moments yet more information has been released by the BBC in relation to the contents of the budget statement. The BBC are advising us that the additional dwelling supplement of BTT is to be increased from 4 per cent to 6 per cent. They are also advising that there could be £500 million extra for local government. It is clear that there has been a comprehensive briefing from the Government to the BBC of the contents of this budget. This is now beyond a joke. This is not the first time that this Government has been caught spreading information to the media in advance of bringing it to this Parliament, disrespecting this Parliament and its procedures. I ask you, if you would, to consider what further action might be taken against the Government in light of this further information that has now come to light. Mr Fraser, it is extremely important that we continue with the business in front of us, given the delay that we have already experienced. I will look into the matters that Mr Fraser has raised at a later point. The next item of business is a statement by John Swinney on the Scottish budget 2023-24. I am simply not going to speak if members will not give me the courtesy and respect of being quiet while I do so, each and every member of this chamber deserves that courtesy and respect. The Cabinet Secretary will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions. Let me say openly to Parliament what I have said to you privately in the welcome conversation that we have had. At no stage has anybody been authorised on my behalf to brief information on what I have said to you privately that, at no stage has anybody been authorised to disclose any information that is contained within the budget statement on my behalf at any time. There is inevitably, there is inevitably, there is inevitably, there is inevitably a large number of people have to be involved in the preparation of a Government statement from the many officials that are involved, but across a whole range of different organisations. I give you my categorical assurance as a member of this Parliament, since its foundation in 1999, that no individual was authorised on my behalf to disclose any information. I simply will not have members shouting discourteous comments to one another across this chamber. Please remember that we are elected representatives elected members, elected members, elected members by the people of Scotland, and I would ask all members to bear that in mind and to think about that with regards to the conduct in this chamber. Mr Swinney. So, Presiding Officer, in light of the understandable concern that you have on this matter, I unreservedly apologise to you for the situation in which you have been authorised on my behalf in protecting the integrity of Parliament and the ability of Government to explain its policy position to Parliament, which it is in the interests of ministers to make sure we are able to do so. I would finally, Presiding Officer, point out, before I come on to the statement, that in the detail that Mr Fraser has just put on the public domain, some of that is contained within the embargoed statements that I make available in advance to other political parties. So, I simply point out that those factors need to be considered within this whole process. Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government budget for 2023-2014, which I think is the most turbulent economic and financial context most people can remember, war has taken place in Europe, leading to the suffering and displacement of millions of Ukrainians. As a result of the conflict, energy and fuel prices are surging. Inflation is now corroding our economy, having reached a 40-year high. If these challenges, faced by countries around the globe, were not enough, the United Kingdom has added to the turmoil by a disastrous approach to Brexit, which has damaged Labour's supply through the loss of free movement of people and undermined frictionless trade with our nearest markets. All of those difficulties have been compounded, but I think that the catastrophic decisions of the United Kingdom Government in the September mini-budget, which has driven increases in interest rates and saddled the country with much higher debt, undermining the public finances for generations to come. In short, those are spectacularly difficult times in which to manage the public finances. These times require Governments to lead, to make choices, to decide what matters, and that is what this Government has resolved to do. As Parliament knows, those hard realities are not just about future years, and I am wrestling with those challenges right now. Before I set out our financial plans for the forthcoming year, I must provide Parliament with an update on this financial year, given the extreme pressure that the Scottish Government budget faces at the present moment. As a result of soaring inflation, we have faced significant and entirely understandable pay demands from public sector workers. In response, we reallocated more than £700 million more than originally budgeted to enhance pay uplifts to better reflect the increased cost of living, and especially to tackle low pay. We continue to deal with the unforeseen but accepted costs of resettling refugees fleeing the illegal war in Ukraine. We have seen thousands of people in Scotland open their homes in response to war, an example of our country at its very best. Scotland will always play our part in supporting those fleeing conflict and persecution in the future. We have made, and we are continuing to make, financial provision to support Ukrainian resettlement costs. The public sector is not in any way immune from the rising costs of energy and inflation, placing additional real pressures on the value of our budget. As a result of those factors, in the autumn, the Scottish Government had to make unprecedented reductions to our spending plans midway through the current financial year, totaling £1.2 billion. We had to do this because once a financial year commences, and in the absence of borrowing powers to address in-year volatility or the ability to alter income tax rates midway through a financial year, we operate a largely fixed total budget, unless the United Kingdom Government allocates any additional resources to Scotland. Despite repeated requests, we have to ensure that no additional resources have been forthcoming for this year. The emergency budget review allowed us to meet the cost of increased public sector pay and provide further help to those most impacted by the cost of living crisis. Taken together, in 2022-23, the Scottish Government has allocated almost £3 billion to help to mitigate the cost of living crisis in these difficult days. However, there are two key points that I must advise Parliament about in relation to the budget for this current year. Firstly, despite reductions in spending of £1.2 billion, the financial pressures are so great that I am still working in this financial year to find a path to fully balance this year's budget. Secondly, as a consequence of that issue, for the first time since this Government took power, I am announcing a budget today for the next financial year, assuming that we do not carry forward any fiscal resources from this year into next. For comparison, our budget for this year was underpinned by £450 million of resources carried over from the previous year. The absence of that carryover increases the scale of the financial challenges that we face in the next financial year. Our budget decisions take place against assessments of deterioration in the economy. I am grateful to the Office for Budget Responsibility and the Scottish Fiscal Commission for their engagement in our budget process. I am, of course, incorporating into the budget the projections made by the Scottish Fiscal Commission. The UK economy has already begun to contract the OBR estimates that the UK has entered the recession that will last for over a year and see GDP fall by 2 per cent. The Scottish Fiscal Commission is expecting the Scottish economy to follow the UK into recession in 2022, with GDP falling 1.8 per cent between quarter 1 2022 and quarter 3 2023. The commission forecast the recession to be similar in Scotland to the rest of the United Kingdom. The OBR estimates that the UK has entered the recession that will last for over a year and in the United Kingdom. According to the latest data published yesterday, inflation now stands at 10.7 per cent. Last month we saw inflation in the UK at its highest since 1981. Businesses and households are facing additional pressures from rising interest rates, with the Bank of England base rate reaching 3.5 per cent today falling the largest increase since 1989. UK-weith accommodation income er g powered by shown to fall back to 2013 levels, the largest fall since records began. To compound matters, our labour market has also been experiencing shortages in part driven by Brexit, as the economy has reopened from the pandemic. As the recession takes hold and employment is projected to gradually rise to reach a peak of 4.7 per cent at the end of 2024. In their November economic outlook, OECD fforddau sydd y Llyfrgell Dŵr yn rai'r gwaith eich rai'r eu cyffredig ddechrau yn y G20, drwy'r rhysgais i'r gweithio ar y 2023 a 2024. Felly, mae'r cyllidion cyllidion cynnwysol yn y Llyfrgell Dŵr yn rai'r gweithio ar gyfer y Llyfrgell Dŵr yn gweithio ar gyfer yr economy yn gweithio ar y cyfrifolau cyllidion yn y Llyfrgell Dŵr yn y Llyfrgell Dŵr yn y llunio'r gwaith, yn gweithio ar gyfer y dymau'r gweithio ar gyfer y mini. While it has brought some improvements to our resource position for 2023-24 compared to the UK Government's published plans, our budget will still be lower in real terms than in 2021. The outlook for future years is looking particularly bleak in 2025-26 and 20-26-27, the latter two years of the Scottish Government's resource spending review period. That is the economic and fiscal context in which the Scottish Government must make our choices for the forthcoming financial year. In formulating this budget, I have reached out to all political parties in this Parliament, to our partners in local government, to trade unions and to many stakeholders in the private, third and public sectors to hear their views. I am grateful to our partners in the Scottish Green Party for their constructive and collaborative approach as we have developed these tax and spending plans in line with our shared commitments in the Butehouse agreement. There are four important factors relevant to considering our decisions set out in the budget today. Firstly, the enormous pressures on the public finances mean that in some cases it will take the Government longer to deliver on our plans. We will work with partners to minimise that effect. Secondly, the requirements for public sector reform, set out in the medium-term financial strategy and the resource spending review, will be ever more required in this context and the Government will set out further plans in due course. We will take forward an agenda consistent with the principles of the Christie commission with a significant emphasis on early intervention and prevention as we work to create person-centred public services. Thirdly, the significant increases in input prices and energy costs mean that our capital budget will be unable to deliver as much as would have been judged possible just a few months ago. The Government will keep those factors under constant review as we take forward the capital programme. Fourthly, given the uncertain inflation outlook and the need to still conclude some pay deals for the current year, I am not publishing a public sector pay policy for 2023-24 at this stage. We will of course continue to collaborate with trade unions and public sector employers on fair and sustainable pay and will look to see more on our approach for 2023-24 in the new year. The Scottish Government, like governments all over the world, is faced with a difficult set of choices. Through this budget, we are facing up to our responsibilities while being open with the people of Scotland about the challenges that lie ahead. To govern is to choose and the Scottish Government has made its choice. We have chosen not to follow the path of austerity that is the hallmark of the United Kingdom Government. However, let me be clear, the choices that we face are all the starker because of the United Kingdom Government. Within the powers available to us, we will choose a different path, a path that sees the Scottish Government commit substantial resources to protect the most vulnerable people of Scotland from the impact of decisions and policies made by the United Kingdom Government. We choose to do everything in our power to eliminate child poverty because in doing so we improve the lives of children and families in Scotland today while also laying the foundations for a more equal and prosperous country in the future. We choose to prioritise the transition to net zero because it is precisely through this transition that Scotland will realise its economic potential not in spite of it. A stronger, fairer, greener economy benefits everyone. We choose to stand firmly alongside the Scottish people, investing in our public services and doing everything possible to ensure that no one is left behind. All of us need to know our public services will be there to meet our needs and we must invest in them to make sure that promise can be fulfilled. In particular, we must target investment in our national health service, which is facing unprecedented pressure following the pandemic. To do this, by choosing a different, more progressive path for Scotland, that is why this budget strengthens the social contract between the Scottish Government and every citizen of Scotland for the wider benefit of society. This social contract means that people in Scotland continue to enjoy many benefits that are not available throughout the United Kingdom, including free prescriptions, free access to higher education and the Scottish child payment. It also means that in Scotland families are shielded as far as possible from the welfare cuts and austerity policies of the United Kingdom Government. Because we know that this progressive model works, we choose the path where people are asked to pay their fair share in the knowledge that in so doing they help create the fairer society in which we all want to live. The limited powers that we won after the independence referendum in 2014 enables Scotland to make different choices on tax and on some elements of social security. The Scottish Government has made use of those powers in the past. In total, the decisions that we have taken since devolution of tax powers and the proposals that I am putting forward today will raise around £1 billion more next year than if we had followed UK tax decisions. We have also used those powers in creating a social security system based on the values of dignity, compassion and respect. This year, we introduced the Scottish child payment, the only measure of its kind available in the United Kingdom, to support children living in poverty. It was first introduced at a rate of £10 per week per eligible child under the age of six. It was then doubled to £20 from April 2022. In November 2022, it was extended to eligible children under the age of 16 and increased to £25, meaning that the payment has increased by 150 per cent in just eight months. The Scottish child payment is now available to around 387,000 children in Scotland and I confirm that the payment will remain at the increased level of £25 per child per week. I am pleased also to announce that all other social security benefits under the control of the Scottish Government will be increased by the rate of inflation in September of 10.1 per cent. In the face of the extraordinary challenges that we face, we have chosen to use our tax powers again to protect our country from the harm caused by the turmoil of these times and the damaging decisions of the United Kingdom Government. Our approach to taxation continues to be guided by our values and the principle that the tax burden should be proportionate to the ability to pay. This commitment to fairness is what underpins the choices that we have made throughout this budget and it underpins our whole approach to taxation. In this budget, we are asking people on higher incomes to contribute more in taxation than those on lower incomes, but with the majority of people in Scotland still paying less in taxation than if they lived in the rest of the United Kingdom. By those decisions, everyone in Scotland will be able to enjoy the benefits of strong public services and a comprehensive social contract. On income tax, I intend to maintain the thresholds for the starter and basic rate bands at their current levels. I confirm that I will also maintain the higher rate threshold at its current level and I will lower the top rate threshold from £150,000 to £125,140. I also intend to make no changes to the starter, basic and intermediate rates to protect those on lower incomes. I have decided to increase the higher and top rates of tax by £1 each to £42 and £47 respectively. As a result, we are asking all those earning more than £43,662 to pay an extra penny in income tax and I want to be clear that extra penny is being raised for a specific purpose. We have taken the decision to enable us to exceed the health resource Barnett consequentials from the UK Government with substantial additional investment in the national health service and investment that will benefit us all. It is, in short, an extra penny to enable spending on patient care in our national health service. On land and buildings transaction tax, there will be no changes to the main residential and non-residential rates and bands next year. Legislation will be introduced today to increase the rate of the additional dwelling supplement from 4 per cent to 6 per cent, raising much-needed additional revenue plus protecting opportunities for first-time buyers. That change will apply with effect from 16 December to address any potential for forestalling with a transitional provision in place. I can also announce today that we will increase both the standard and lower Scottish landfill tax rates on 1 April and will maintain consistency across the United Kingdom, guard against waste tourism and support our ambitions for a more circular economy. The Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts that the income tax policy changes that I have outlined today will raise £129 million in 2023-24. In addition to that, the Scottish Government estimates that freezing the higher rate threshold has added £390 million when compared to inflation. The Scottish Fiscal Commission also forecasts that the changes to the additional dwelling supplement will raise an additional £34 million in revenue in 2023-24. Taken together, we estimate that those changes will provide £553 million in 2023-24 for investment in public services in Scotland. In that challenging economic context, I recognise the pressures faced by business working in difficult conditions to create employment and growth in our economy. 16 business organisations came together to ask me to take one particular step to support businesses through these tough times. The number one ask was that I freeze the non-domestic rates poundage at 2022-23 levels. On non-domestic rates, I can confirm that we will protect businesses from the full impact of inflation by delivering a freeze to the basic property rate. That will ensure that Scotland has the lowest poundage in the United Kingdom for the fifth year in a row and is forecast to save business tax rate pairs £308 million compared to an inflationary increase. We will reform and extend the small business bonus scheme to improve the progressivity of the relief, whilst ensuring that it remains the most generous small business relief in the United Kingdom and delivers the manifesto commitment that 100,000 properties will be taken out of rates altogether. By introducing transitional reliefs, we will help to ensure that those properties that see their rates liabilities increase significantly fall in the revaluation to do so in a phased manner. We will use our approach to non-domestic rates to assist the transition to net zero as we incentivise investment in renewables through the introduction of new prescribed plant and machinery exemptions for on-site renewable energy generation and storage. Investment, be it in the low-carbon economy or more broadly, is central to building a strong economy and the fairer and more equal country in which we all want to live. It is to that investment that I now turn. In formulating a budget in this period of huge challenge, it is vital that the Government sets out its clearest priorities. That is necessary to give clarity to our partners in local government, the private and third sectors and in public bodies about the direction about what matters to the Government. Through our programme for government in this budget, we are focused on eradicating child poverty, transforming the economy to net zero and in creating sustainable public services. We do not view those as three competing objectives. We view them as priorities that are linked together as a means of supporting families, of creating new economic opportunities, of protecting our environment and of offering protection and support to every citizen in Scotland through our public services. Much of what the Government wishes to achieve for Scotland aligns with what local authorities wish to achieve for their communities. But too often, valuable time and energy is taken up in fractious debates about resources and accountability for spending them. The Government will invite our partners in local government to work with us in building on our jointly produced Covid recovery strategy to create a more effective way of working together, focused on outcomes that matter to people with more flexibility, reduced reporting and greater assurance. We want to enable this new partnership by giving our commitment to the financing of local government. Instead of providing the flat cash position set out in the resource spending review, we are now increasing the resources available to local government next year by over £550 million. Furthermore, I can confirm that the Scottish Government will not seek to agree any freeze or cap in locally determined increases to council tax, as requested by COSLA and council leaders. This means that each council will have full flexibility to set the council tax rate that is appropriate for their local authority area. I encourage councils to consider carefully the cost pressures facing the public when setting future rates. Earlier this year, the Government set out our plan to tackle child poverty, best start bright futures. The title of the plan says it all. We want to ensure that children get the best start in life and are able to fulfil their potential. That means in this budget, sustaining investment in the baby box, providing 1140 hours of early learning and childcare to all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds, committing £200 million to the Scottish attainment challenge to deliver excellence and equity in education, and tackling school holiday hunger with investment of £22 million to provide meals during school holidays to the children who need them most. That builds on our on-going expansion of free school meals for all primary six and seven pupils in receipt of the Scottish child payment, as the next step in fulfilling our commitment to universal provision in primary schools from August 2024. We recognise that some of the children in poverty whose life chances face the greatest of challenge are those with experience of care. The budget delivers a further £30 million investment to keep the promise and £50 million investment in a whole family wellbeing programme to provide holistic, preventative family support to give our children who face the greatest challenge the greatest opportunity to realise their potential. A crucial element of helping families out of poverty is providing the opportunities and integrated support parents need to access, sustain and progress in work. We recognise that some people face greater challenges in entering the labour market, so we are increasing the investment that we have made in no one left behind and fair starts Scotland. Employment opportunities are crucial, particularly in these difficult economic times, so the transition of our economy to net zero must be undertaken in a just and fair way that enables people, communities and businesses in Scotland to thrive and prosper. Those opportunities must exist in every single part of Scotland. This approach will be delivered through initiatives such as the £366 million planned investment in the heat and buildings programme to decarbonise heating plus the £34 million Scottish industrial energy transformation fund and the £26 million low-carbon manufacturing challenge fund. Investment in our natural environment will support the journey to net zero, with a £26 million programme of peatland restoration, £77 million in woodland planting and £44 million to help Scotland to become a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture. We will support the transition to net zero by investing a further £244 million in the Scottish National Investment Bank, by investing £50 million to deliver the next phase of the just transition fund for the north-east and for Murray, more than doubling this year's allocation and investing in the tech scale programme throughout Scotland to support our efforts in innovation. As the Climate Change Committee recently highlighted, decarbonising transport remains one of the key challenges that we face in reaching net zero. We will support those efforts by working with the private sector to extend Scotland's electric vehicle charging infrastructure with investment of £60 million, expenditure of £1.4 billion to maintain, operate and decarbonise our rail infrastructure, invest nearly £200 million in active and sustainable travel, and we will support those efforts. We will provide £15 million as part of our fair fares review for a six-month pilot removing peak-time rail fares as a way of making rail travel more affordable and attractive to travellers. Ferry services are vital in sustaining connectivity with our island communities, and the budget includes £440 million to support lifeline services. I am also allocated £15 million in this financial year and £57 million in the next financial year to support the completion of vessels 801 and 802 at Ferguson Marine, along with the resources required to build the two new island-class vessels under control. We must have a skills training and research environment that enables our people and businesses to realise their potential. For that reason, we have increased the resources available to the college and university sectors by £26 million and £20 million to support this process. Many of our public services are on a journey to recovery following the acute phase of the pandemic. That is no more so than in the justice system. We want people to live in safe communities where we act early to reduce the potential for harm, support victims of crime and act swiftly to bring the perpetrators of crime and violence to justice. As part of the budget, I intend to increase the resources available to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service by £13 million and to our wider justice system by £165 million. That will provide resources to tackle court backlogs, strengthen legal aid provision and enable the funding of police services to increase by £80 million. The most precious of our public services, the one of which all of us depend, is our national health service. We recognise the challenges the NHS faces and the pressures that are borne by the outstanding public servants who work in the NHS. That is why we have offered a formidable pay settlement to staff in the NHS. Supporting our NHS boards remains a top priority, and in the year ahead we will invest over £13 billion to allow them to continue to drive forward the five-year recovery plan. The reform of key services will continue back by £2 billion to establish and improve primary healthcare services in the community. In parallel, we will provide £1.7 billion for social care and integration to improve services while paving the way for the introduction of the national care service. The additional £100 million will be made available to support delivery of the £10.90 real living wage for adult social care, building on the increase provided in 2022-23. This is vital work, and it is important that those on the front line are supported. We remain committed to addressing the on-going public health emergencies and reducing the avoidable harms associated with drugs and alcohol. By investing £160 million, we will ensure that important work continues. This is part of our commitment to provide £250 million of additional funding over the life of this Parliament to address the drugs death emergency. If we want to be able to depend on the national health service, we have to be prepared to pay for it. When the UK Government set out its autumn statement, it gave rise to consequential funding for the NHS in Scotland of £291 million. I intend to pass on that funding consequential, but I do not believe that it is nearly enough for the critical task that we ask our staff in the national health service to do. As a result of the choices that I have made on income tax, I am in a position in one year to increase the amount that we spend on health and social care in Scotland by over £1 billion. In the resource spending review, the Scottish Government committed to make £20 million available to fund the cost of a referendum on Scottish independence. The Government believed that to be a necessary investment to ensure that people of Scotland have the opportunity to express their democratic right to self-government. The Scottish Government respects the decision of the Supreme Court, but it still believes that people of Scotland must have the opportunity to have that say in a democratic referendum in line with our clear mandate. When that opportunity is available, the Scottish Government will make financial provisions for that to happen. However, at this moment, I must make full use of the resources available to me. One of the reasons why I believe that Scotland will be a successful independent country is because of the energy wealth that we enjoy. Scotland is a country with an abundance of renewable energy opportunities. However, the travesty is that, despite that strength, too many of our people languish in fuel poverty. In order to help our most vulnerable citizens, I intend to utilise the finance earmarked for a referendum on independence to make provision to extend our fuel insecurity fund into next year, a further £20 million to address yet another failure of the United Kingdom and its policies. The budget takes place at a time of enormous challenge and difficulty for people and business due to volatility in the economy and the corrosive effect of inflation. Many in our communities, the people who send us here are suffering real and enduring hardship. All of this is happening at a time when our country needs to adapt to the challenges of net zero and face the hard reality of severe constraints in the public finances. In that context, this Government has decided to use our scope to take distinctive decisions to the greatest extent we believe possible at this time. We have chosen to reject the path of austerity. We have chosen a progressive path instead to invest in our people, to invest in our economy and to invest in our public services. Those are the choices that we have made, the choices for our future and I commend the budget to Parliament. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement. I intend to allow around 60 minutes for questions after which we will move on to the next item of business. I would be grateful if all members who wish to ask a question were to press their request to speak buttons now. I begin by thanking you in my response for taking the matter of the pre-budget leak to the press very seriously. There is no doubt that this was a very considerable discourtesy to this Parliament, one that I have never come across before in my time in this place. It has been extremely difficult for Opposition members to view the budget as a result. I am sure that there are members across the chamber who will want you to fully investigate why that was allowed to happen. I acknowledge again the very tight fiscal circumstances confronting the cabinet secretary as he has embarked upon the tough decisions that he has outlined. I do think that it is about time that John Swinney stopped blaming the UK Government for every single predicament in which he finds himself. He has had more money at his disposal than he has been prepared to admit. As the Fraser of Allander Institute reminded us at the weekend, the block grant money from the UK Government more or less covered the inflationary pressures upon him. He knows too that, discounting all the additional Covid spend from the UK Government in the previous two years, he had a record block grant funding from the UK Government for the current financial year. He knows that the Scottish Government will receive an additional £1.6 billion of resource spending in the next two financial years, which will give direct support to our schools and hospitals. He tells us today that the Scottish Government has been forced into using its own powers to the greatest extent, but those powers have been there throughout all the time that the SNP has been in government. It has not been using it to deliver on the clear priorities of the Scottish people, on supporting household incomes on jobs, on sustained and consistent support for our businesses and high streets and on the delivery of our public services, many of which are delivered by local government. We recently wrote a very strong letter to John Swinney outlining the extent of the huge pressures that it is under as a result of the SNP cutting their funding over several years. If you raise taxes, Mr Swinney, the public wants to know why they see only cuts and a deterioration in the delivery of public services. If you widen the tax gap for middle and higher earners in Scotland in comparison with their UK counterparts, you risk undermining the potential for economic growth that this country so desperately needs. The Scottish Conservatives very much look forward to the forthcoming stage 1 process in which we will set out where Mr Swinney can further re-prioritise money to front-line services, including to local government, to policing, to net zero, a re-prioritisation that means withdrawing the huge spending commitment to the national care service, which very few stakeholders want at all, and removing that commitment to the bogus referendum. In the meantime, what analysis has Mr Swinney undertaken about the likely impact on tax revenues and on economic growth in Scotland, resulting from middle and higher income earners paying more tax per head than their counterparts in the rest of the UK, given that we know from the Scottish Fiscal Commission that the devolved tax powers used so far by the Scottish Government have not delivered any additional tax revenues than would have been the case had the taxes been set by Westminster. Secondly, I noticed that the total education and skills budget has been increased for the coming year by just under £100 million, but as I understand that, it is not the full extent of the Barnett consequentials delivered to the Scottish Government for education. Can I ask him to confirm where the rest of that money is perhaps in local government budgets, but I think that it is very important that that is spent in the tension of the education budget. Obviously, it is very good news indeed that finally the Scottish Government has withdrawn the £20 million that was due for an independence referendum. Can I ask him to confirm that, as well as prioritising that money, has he also prioritised the activities of the 25 civil servants who were working on that? That was a very confused contribution from Liz Smith. Let me just walk my way through that, because just a few months ago Liz Smith wanted me to follow the budget of quasi-quartang and cut tax immediately and look at the carnage that that has created in the UK economy. At the weekend, quasi-quartang told us that they all got carried away. They blew it. That lot over there wanted me to follow their stupid and foolish example. Thank goodness I never did it. When I look at some of the points that Liz Smith put to me, for example, on business support, she did not welcome the fact that I have frozen business rates, despite the fact that 16 business organisations asked me to do that, that might have merited a welcome. She said that we have not put in place support for business. We have got the best small business scheme in the United Kingdom. When it comes to the tax forecast, Liz Smith will be able to read the Scottish Fiscal Commission's report, which indicates that they have given us projections about growth and income tax earnings in the years to come, as the Scottish economy strengthens. Another thing that Liz Smith might get round to welcoming. Then we come on to education consequentials. How on earth am I supposed to boost the budget of local government, which provides education in our country if I do not use the consequentials that are set out for those purposes? On this obsession that Liz Smith has got with £20 million for the independence referendum, she is absolutely and completely obsessed with the whole thing. I am beginning to get worried about her obsession with that. I can fund that in order to deal with the fuel poverty that exists in our country, the punishing inflation that people are resting with, the sky-high energy costs that have been fuelled by the mismanagement of the United Kingdom's energy and economic policies by Liz Smith's allies in the United Kingdom, I am allocating that resource to support those in fuel poverty and surely the Tories could welcome that. Daniel Johnson, I too thank you for your investigations into the afternoon's incidents. Just to the comments made by the Deputy First Minister at the start of this, the details laid bare by Murdo Fraser were news to me, particularly most prominently the rate of LBTT. Can I confirm that they were not in my copy of the statement that was released? They were in the embargoed sections. It was an impossibility for opposition parties to provide that. I considered the Deputy First Minister's comments to be a smear. I would ask him to withdraw them and to investigate who did, if it was without his authorisation, who did leak it from the Government. Budgets are about priorities, and the need to deliver on the priorities of the Scottish people could not be greater at this time, but this Government has a delivery problem. We know that there was half a billion pounds underspent last year from the finance and economy budget because the Government couldn't get Covid support grants out the door. This year, the emergency budget saw a cut to building energy efficiency funding, apparently because there was a lack of demand. A lack of demand in the middle of a cost of living crisis caused by increases in gas and electricity costs, it beggars belief, so this budget must deliver for those in most need. Can the Deputy First Minister set out how the budget will tackle the Government's clear deficiencies in delivery in assisting those in urgent need? Inflation is robbing people of their security, their dignity and their ability to provide for their families. The budget must pay particular attention to pay in the public sector. There are almost 300,000 people in the public sector on less than £15 an hour. ONS data is clear that there are 23,000 people in the public sector earning less than the national living wage. That is a scandal. As a result of this budget, what will those figures look like at the end of this financial year? I asked the Deputy First Minister if he could clarify that. Scottish Labour has been consistent in recent years about social care pay. Last year saw the minimum wage for social care raised by just £50. This year it is even less, £40. That is a 3.8 per cent increase. That is an insult. There is a direct and real cost to the NHS of delayed discharge. That has got worse because those carrying out social care have left for jobs with better pay. What is the cost of the health service of failing to increase pay to £12 an hour? Has that assessment been carried out? I will ask the Deputy First Minister to concede that the fiscal commission has been clear that Scottish growth in wages and jobs has lagged the UK average and lagged every other devolved nation. Does the Deputy First Minister acknowledge this Government's failure to deliver a growth plan worthy of the name and its failure to grow jobs and people? How will this budget help that? Finally, Scottish Labour will always support progressive taxation, but we are also clear that if you are going to take progressive tax measures, you must demonstrate clear improvements to public services. However, the statement today with a manifesto-busting measure does not do this. People will not accept a rise in tax bills if all they see is further decline of their services after 15 years of the SNP's mismanagement of them. Furthermore, will they tolerate this tax hike if they see the ranks of spin doctors, quangos and civil servants swell? Will the Deputy First Minister bring forward a clear plan setting out how this money will improve the NHS, not just by the funding amount? Will he pledge to cut Government waste to justify this tax rise? The focus of the budget is on eradicating child poverty, on making the transition of the economy to net zero practical and possible, and on ensuring that we have sustainable public services. That is the approach that I am putting into the budget to ensure the delivery challenge that Mr Johnson puts to me can be addressed. On the question of public sector pay, as Mr Johnson knows, he and I have rehearsed this issue a few times. We have spent, as ministers, a large amount of time over the course of the last few months trying to get to a position whereby we secure deals that are increasing the pay of public sector workers, and we have made significant progress. Indeed, one of the points that the First Minister was making at First Minister's question time today is that in every other part of the United Kingdom today there is industrial action in the national health service. That is not happening in Scotland because of the dialogue that we have taken forward, and I welcome very much the trade union support for the pay deals that we have put forward. We are working on all those deals, whether it is the local government deal or the health service deal. Each of those deals has been specifically focused and targeted on improving the position of low pay. Those on lower pay have had higher increases than those who are on higher pay. Those investments and those priorities that are made by the Government are designed to strengthen the position of people on low pay. Mr Johnson talked about the issue of delayed discharge, and the Government accepts the undesirability of delayed discharge. The health secretary and I and other ministers are spending a huge amount of time working with local government and partners to try to secure those reductions, but the key thing that we keep on being told is the challenge of being able to recruit staff, and the challenge of recruiting staff is about the folly of Brexit and the loss of free movement of population. We are taking the steps necessary through the work that we are doing to improve pay to try to ensure that we can overcome that disadvantage. Mr Johnson asked me about wage growth in the Scottish economy. He will not have time to see this because it is in the fiscal commission report. The fiscal commission report says today that it predicts a period of catch-up in Scottish earnings over the next five years relative to the rest of the United Kingdom. I hope that that gives Mr Johnson some reassurance. What will drive that will be the implementation and delivery of the national strategy for economic transformation, which was set out by the finance secretary earlier this year, and has now been taken further. I hope that we will be able to move forward to deliver that improvement in economic performance. Lastly, we come to the question of tax, and I have never heard in my puff such an equivocal explanation of the Labour Party's position on tax, because Daniel Johnson was sat throughout that question to me well and truly on top of the fence on the issue of tax. The Labour Party's got to decide who's side are they on? Are they on the side of investing in the public services or on the side of trying to have it both ways? That's what Daniel Johnson is trying to do today.