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You said earlier that local authorities were meant to use existing buildings first and then existing private facilities, and that only if the capacity was not available could they build new facilities. However, a lot of capital work has taken place, which suggests that there were no private facilities that could be used. Was that really the case? Were private nurseries and childminders given the opportunity to flag up what they could do in order to provide the hours?

It has occurred to me that local authorities do not really have any building or capital costs, so I guess that there is not a level playing field in that regard either. That is probably why they can pay their staff more and, I would imagine, pensions are more generous, too. Therefore, it is even harder for private providers to compete with local authorities when they have all that for free. Would that be correct?

I notice there are huge differences. Catering is mentioned in our report, with some authorities saying spend took up 6 per cent of the grant, whereas others said that it was zero. I cannot quite understand that from the papers.

That will have an impact on future maintenance of the buildings in question and everything else.

I guess that we do not have the full picture. As the convener pointed out, there are big local authorities, such as Glasgow City Council and Aberdeen City Council, that we are not seeing data for. There are huge gaps in the data that we have.

You mentioned that the specific grant has been cut going forward. From the Government’s point of view, is that not justified given that, up until now, local authorities have not spent the grant that they have been given?

David Robertson, you went through the process.

I will follow on from that line of questioning about the robustness of the data. I was surprised to read in our briefing paper that, after the first financial template went out in June 2019,

“significant data quality issues were identified”.

A revised template then went out, but only 17 returns were deemed sufficiently accurate and robust to include in the analysis. Can we have confidence in the data from the 17 for which we have figures? On the variances between authorities, the 2021 data for Aberdeenshire Council, for example, shows that 54 per cent of its specific revenue grant was spent on ELC, but Argyll and Bute Council spent the whole 100 per cent. There seem to be huge differences between local authorities. Is the data that we have from those 17 robust enough? How can we ensure that we have data from all local authorities going forward?

David Robertson might have a view on this. Some of the underspends have been because of Covid, with people not taking up their full entitlement and so on over the past couple of years. Could that change?

My final question is about the two-year review that Sarah Watters mentioned. Will there be opportunities for local authorities to bid back in for capital funding—for example, for new facilities that they want to build for the service?