Seòmar agus comataidhean

Let us turn to the subject of colleges. I will bring in the minister in a moment, but I will start with you, cabinet secretary. Yesterday, when asked in the chamber about college funding cuts in this and previous years, the First Minister said:

“with the budget that we are putting forward, I am confident that we have adequate resources to support individuals’ employability and skills journeys”.—[Official Report, 7 January 2025; c 30.]

Do you agree with the First Minister that this budget provides adequate resources to Scotland’s colleges?

I am asking very specifically about what Colleges Scotland told us, saying things like “deeply disappointing”, telling us that colleges have been “overlooked”, talking about

“far-reaching implications for Scotland’s economic recovery”

and using words like “significant challenges” and “alarming”. That does not in any way marry with what you and the First Minister are saying about colleges having adequate support.

There is a lot more that I would like to get into, but there are many other members of the committee, so we will go to Jackie Dunbar.

On that point, cabinet secretary, you say that you are very positive about the provision of free school meals, which was a manifesto commitment on which your Government was elected. I go back to my original question to you. Did you ask the finance secretary to include that provision in the budget and she did not, or did you not make a bid for free school meals and an uplift in funding to deliver that?

I call Miles Briggs.

I call Pam Duncan-Glancy.

I thank you for your time today, and I thank the officials from the non-Government bills unit and Parliament. We have heard sincere cross-party good wishes offered to you, Ms Smith, for the work that you have done and will continue to do in this area. This has been the final session of our consideration before we construct our stage 1 report, and it has been extremely helpful.

That concludes the public part of our proceedings. I suspend the meeting to allow our witnesses to leave and the committee will move into private session.

Just to press that a little bit further, I note that we have heard about the impact that outdoor education has not just on the pupil but on the teacher who teaches the pupils for the remainder of the year. Staff at the Broomlee centre told us on Monday that September is a big month for primary 7 and secondary 1 classes—they have noticed a real difference in those transition years. I take Ross Greer’s point in the spirit in which he asked his question, but there is clearly also a benefit from pupils seeing their own teacher in such environments. Is that what you have picked up, Liz?

I bring in Miles Briggs to continue on finance and funding.

Thank you. Willie Rennie will ask the next question.