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As I have seen, as a member of the committee and then up close as a minister, the industrial relations are not at all good. There have been disputes in eight of the past nine years. Having spoken to both sides, I think that we need to find some way of addressing that. The committee expressed a view on that previously and I share that view.

The universities are in a slightly different set-up in that the industrial dispute is United Kingdom-wide. There is a pay offer, which has been rejected. I have had conversations directly with Universities Scotland on specific issues that are happening in Scotland and I have sought to encourage it to engage constructively with the UCU to try to resolve the matter.

I do not think that the First Minister shot it down, as you put it; he was just clear that the Scottish Government’s position is that that is a red-line issue for us. Sir Peter is perfectly entitled to express his view. As you will know, he was very clear that he wanted a calm discussion and that it was all about taking a limited approach, but unfortunately in some quarters his view was portrayed as being that he wanted to reintroduce tuition fees, which is not what he was saying at all.

However, that does not mean that we agree with him—we do not.

I think that I was stating a fact. It is not about the £26 million.

I am not comfortable that people are facing the prospect of losing their jobs—I am not at all comfortable with that—but, with respect, Ms Duncan-Glancy, I point out that we have already heard about the budgetary challenges that are being faced. If the committee or anyone else wants to say, as they are entitled to, that more money should be put into colleges, they will need to tell us where that money will come from.

This was partly the issue with the teachers’ pay settlement. Everybody understandably wanted the then education secretary to settle that dispute, but she made it very clear that, for that to happen, the money would have to come from somewhere else. Regrettably, we do not have an endless pot of money, and a flat-cash settlement was as good as could be achieved, given the budget pressures that the Government is facing. As I keep saying, I regret the consequences for the colleges and for staff.

Mr Kerr, as usual, there is lots of hyperbole and all that.

Since 2012-13, the college sector budget has increased by £168 million.

The latest figures for 2021-22 have running costs of £675,000 for the Glasgow Colleges Regional Board. Mr Doris and the committee members who were here previously will be aware that the Government is considering options for the future governance of the Glasgow college region following the appraisals exercise that was done. I am aware of Mr Doris’s views on that and of the views of others.

Any decision that I take will be subject to a 12-week public consultation, and I hope that we will be in a position to take the decision and begin the process relatively soon.

I can do that once the figures are available.

A number of flexibilities were delivered for this year. I can go into some detail on those if you wish, convener. They included changes to guidance that will enable colleges to deliver an optimal balance of full-time and part-time provision. The minimum credit target has been reduced by at least 10 per cent. Colleges that underdeliver on credit targets will still be allowed to keep 20 per cent of the funding for those credits. Backlog maintenance and lifecycle maintenance have been rolled into one funding allocation as opposed to our providing separate allocations for each, which will allow colleges to determine the most appropriate split between the two uses. That is what has been done thus far. I am keen to explore what we can do with colleges quickly and for us then to consider what we might be able to do beyond that.

To be clear, last week when we met the colleges, they did not come with a list of asks. However, late last year they produced a list of suggestions, some of which were acted upon at the time while others were not. We have asked them to come back to us with an updated list of suggestions.

Sitting alongside that, I have tasked officials with looking into ideas that I have that might be useful to colleges. I should be clear that those cover the resource area of the budget and also capital. I am very much alive to the fact that the colleges have net zero targets to meet. We are all aware of the ageing nature of some of the college estate. We are looking at what it might be possible to do in that space.

Convener, you will appreciate that I do not want to break confidences here. We have to work through those matters with the colleges, but once we have reached agreement I will be more than happy to write to the committee about what we are doing.

I recognise the issue and am aware of one course that has closed because of lack of demand. There will always be issues. My conversations with colleges show that they recognise the importance of that sort of delivery, as do I.