Seòmar agus comataidhean

Yes, it is difficult, but we have had a similar problem in this committee with a range of bills. I take your point that, normally, the committee is looking at costs perhaps being underestimated and savings perhaps being overestimated, and I am looking at it the other way round. However, we expect to see best estimates in the financial memorandum.

Presumably, there is evidence from around the world. It cannot be proved when someone would have died otherwise, but there must be estimates as to how much before the expected point of death they have died. It seems to me that there would be savings, and that is one of my concerns.

Although I take your point that doctors will not be making decisions or recommendations or giving advice based on financial factors, it is part of the system that we are all in a very cost-driven society. The state pension would be one cost, but if somebody was in hospital, I think that there would be a cost of perhaps £300 a day for being in hospital, so, for a week, we would be talking about a cost of £2,000. Similarly, in a care home, we would be talking about a cost of £6,000 a month, so it would not take very long for some kind of savings to start building up, surely.

I take your point that we could proceed in either way. However, I would say that amendments 61 and 75, in particular, seem to be fairly gentle. Can you spell out your reservations a little bit more? All that they are saying is that we must “consider” whether certain information should be provided in Gaelic, and must

“have regard to the desirability”

of publishing certain other information in Scots. I am not sure that that means anything. What is the real problem with the amendments?

I follow your argument, but do you accept that, as long as the bill says that there should be targets, it does not need to say exactly what those targets are?

Professor Ulph, do you have something to add?

That takes me on to another point that I had intended to raise later. We are talking about a shortage of staff in the public and private sectors. Is the situation different in Scotland from in the UK? We get the impression that fewer immigrants come here because it rains so much and so on. Are the gaps greater in Scotland?

That is right.

So you think that the labour market is a bit tighter in Scotland, even though it is hard to pin that down.

I will jump back to the question on the increase in employer national insurance contributions. There seems to be quite a big gap between the suggested cost of that, which is £500 million, and the funding that is being offered, which is £300 million. That is not just about Scotland having a few more public sector workers, is it? Do we know whether the English departments are also not being fully funded?

There is quite a big increase in capital funding this year. Will that have an impact on economic growth?

Looking forward to next year and the UK Government’s spending review, are we any clearer about the timescales for that? It has been suggested that that would take place from April to June. I imagine that it will have an impact on the work that you and the Government are doing.