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The point that I want to make is that we are banning the import of whole shark fins, but we would still be encouraging the trade if we allowed processed shark fins to come into the country as a product to be consumed.

I apologise. The papers were not clear.

Has there been any intergovernmental discussion about the regulation of new genetic techniques in the future, including the extent to which the common frameworks process has already been used?

My final point goes back to a point that Brian Whittle made. In another session—I cannot remember which one—we took evidence about data gathering, and we have heard that we have world-class data. However, the link between what that data is and how it is used is not as strong as it could be in the Scottish Government. Would you look at that?

Yes.

We are talking about looking ahead to another pandemic. We want to plan for another pandemic and we want to tackle our current health problems, but we also want to put money into preventative spending. If I was a finance minister looking at that right now, I would be saying that I would have to quadruple my budget in order to make all those things happen. How does a Government take all the data, information and challenges and make that fit? How do you do that?

It is not a trick question—it is a genuine question.

I apologise in advance, cabinet secretary. My questioning has been picking up bits of all the stuff that is being asked, so you might be made to jump about all over the place.

There is a feeling that we could have planned ahead better, which leads me on to a further source of confusion—there is a lot of that in this evidence session, I have to tell you.

We have an excellent performance framework, but a link to the budget is missing. Other countries link the two. What other countries do it the way that Scotland does it? Why is it done in that way, rather than by linking the budget to the performance framework?

I am sorry—I am not asking you to look at the issue from Scotland’s point of view. I am asking about what happens in other countries that you deal with; I know that you have not had a direct link to Scotland.

You have actually led me very neatly on to my next question by talking about what data is included. Brian Whittle stated that we had a bigger cost during Covid because of our particular health challenges. Is that correct? Has Scotland had to pay more during Covid because of our particular health challenges? Has it cost us more, financially, than other countries because of Scotland’s health challenges?

Your point that what goes into a budget never comes out of it again is a really interesting one. In other words, once it is tied in, it is baked into future spending so that the money is never lost. Speaking anecdotally, local authorities will spend money at the end of a financial term in order to get rid of it, so that they do not lose it out of the budget. We have forward spending reviews, but you are saying that we could help to tackle those issues by having previous spending reviews to look at how the money was spent and whether that gave us value for money. Is that what you are saying? I am putting it in very simplistic terms.

Do the spending reviews look back?