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Perhaps that is something that we could look at here.

Auditor General, you are very critical—and you have been for some time—of the short-term nature of the budgetary decisions that are taken here in Scotland. You said earlier that that means that we balance the budget, because we must balance the budget every year, but is that approach fit for purpose, in your view?

I have a couple more questions. First, exhibit 1, which is a graph, shows that there is a growing gap between spending and projected funding. That gap is getting bigger. Do you see that situation simply getting worse? Is the Government taking any action that would address that problem? That growing gap is undoubtedly a problem.

One of your recommendations is about mandate letters. You say that, by September next year, the Government should review and update the mandate letters that were issued in September 2023. Could you explain what mandate letters are, why you think they are important and whether the mandate letters that were issued in September 2023 had any effect whatsoever?

Thanks, convener. I want to go back to the whole issue of reform. I suppose that we could probably agree that reform is not necessarily about saving money, although it might save money. Ultimately, it is about doing things better, I think, so that there are better outcomes for the people we are all here to serve. That might save money, which would be a benefit.

The convener has already touched on paragraph 70 in your report, but I will point to paragraph 69, where you say:

“The Scottish Government required all portfolios to lay out their savings and reform plans by the end of the financial year.”

Then in paragraph 70, you talk about public bodies being asked three times to assess their ability to carry out reform. I am concerned that both those paragraphs give the impression of departments, portfolios, or public bodies refusing to play ball on reform. They are not giving the information required. Is that your assessment?

You mentioned a medium-term financial strategy. When do you expect to see that?

I may well, convener—and it seems appropriate to do so.

Of course, Auditor General, I am not asking you to comment on what you think of individual announcements in the budget. You have made some opening remarks, but overall do you think that what you heard yesterday goes any way towards addressing the concerns that you have raised in the report?

To go back to yesterday’s budget, it felt to me as though there were a lot of short-term announcements and not too many long-term announcements, which is what you are looking for. Is that how it felt to you?

I am sorry—could you describe that for us?

Is what is required more leadership from the top, from the Government, telling either its own departments or public bodies what it is looking for?

So, already we can see that the medium-term financial strategy might not arrive until later next year.