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I completely agree with Willie Rennie. The minister gave categorical assurances, but we will have to monitor the situation as it develops, because there are issues that might come back to us in due course.

You said that you are “confident just now”. I know that that is probably legal speak for not setting anything in concrete.

I have concerns about how this will be interpreted because of the terminology of “ordinarily resident”. For example, the Scottish Parliament information centre’s briefing for today’s meeting says:

“The Scottish Government expects someone who is ordinarily resident in Scotland to have made their home in Scotland with the intention of staying and living here”.

I feel that that is a huge open barn door. How will we test expectations and intentions? For example, someone could move here at Easter, do a job through spring and into summer—a summer job, basically—apply to go to a Scottish university, have an address in Scotland, be able to produce the necessary documentation to prove that they are resident there and then make an application. That is correct, is it not?

That is not going to happen.

Okay, fine. I appreciate the minister putting that on the record. I am sure that the minister understands why I am labouring the point, which is because of the nature of the cap, the number of places and the Scottish Government’s financial commitment to those places. I am obviously anxious that domiciled Scots should be able to take up those places. I hope that that is seen as the natural inclination that I would have, as a Scot.

I will be very brief. In relation to tuition fees, are you willing to consider Sir Peter Mathieson’s idea to allow domiciled Scots the opportunity if they are unable to obtain a place on a course at a Scottish institution—

The minister says that it is not captured by the regulations, but the criteria given in the minister’s letter are that someone must be

“ordinarily resident in the UK for three years”,

that they are

“ordinarily resident in Scotland on the relevant date”,

which is the date of commencement of the course, and that they

“Have been granted a form of leave”.

We absolutely want the friends who have joined us in Scotland for various reasons, most notably Ukrainians, to have access to higher and further education, but you are saying that nothing will have changed in respect of people from the rest of the United Kingdom, whereas, to me as a non-lawyer—it is important that I make that point—this reads as if there are ways to get round that.

Ah.

Yes.

I address my questions to Liz Green in the first instance.

In March 2021, the Welsh Government said that it would have something ready to replace Erasmus+, and we have heard from witnesses this morning that it launched that replacement at the beginning of 2022. We also heard about the 5,000 participants, et cetera. It sounds like it has been a big success. What engagement have you had with the Scottish Government about the lack of anything like that in Scotland?

CLD?