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Does either of the other Davids want to come in?

That is helpful. In the interests of time, I will not ask any other questions, but Guto Ifan might want to add something.

[Inaudible.]

It is important to try to establish critically the purpose and effect of each of the measures around the block grant adjustments, as that is where the bulk of the discussion and debate is likely to be. I want to clarify a few things. In essence, the comparable method seems to involve isolating the ability of a Scottish taxpayer to pay tax in comparison to the average UK taxpayer. On top of that, in the index per capita method, we have a factor to offset the ability of Scotland to grow its population relative to the rest of the UK. Wales has a system that isolates each tax band, which, in a sense, offsets its ability to change the make-up of its tax base. Is that a fair summary of what the three different methods do?

In your report, you say that the review of block grant adjustments is a political decision, not a technical one. I think that I understand that. Therefore, is the political decision the extent to which the devolved Governments are able to influence the size of their population, the extent to which their citizens are able to pay tax and the structure of that tax? Is that a fair summary of what the political drivers of the models might be?

My next question follows on from the answers to some of John Mason’s questions. Although applying the Welsh model in Wales projects that the Welsh budget will increase, it does not do the same thing for the Scottish budget if we apply it in Scotland. It means that the decline is not as severe, but we would still be worse off than if the current set-up had not been put in place.

When the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s report came out, prior to the budget, everyone was taken by surprise at how significant the lag in income tax growth was in Scotland compared to in England. That is the fundamental driver. Why is that the case? Why is income tax growing more slowly in Scotland than it is in not just the UK as a whole but pretty much every other region in the UK, including Wales? What levers are available to the Scottish Government to address that?

I wanted to come back to something that Stephen Boyle said. Perhaps he can repeat what he said in his answer.

I am interested in the delay to the audit work. What is the broad balance? We can understand that there is complexity because you are having to do audit work remotely or with social distancing. There is an inherent productivity issue because of the Covid restrictions. What is the split between that issue and the fact that the nature of the activities being undertaken by public bodies, and the way that they are being funded through extraordinary Covid funding, is making your audit work more complicated? In other words, it is more difficult to follow the audit trail because of the nature of the work. Do you have a sense of that split? Have I missed anything else in my assessment of why audit may be taking longer?

Is your connection okay, Professor Alexander? Should I come back in with a question, chair?

I will leave it there, chair. I have one more question that I may ask later in relation to investment. However, it may be covered by one of my colleagues.

Thank you for bringing me in here, chair. I did not want to pre-empt your questions with my follow-ups, which follow directly on from those questions.

Stephen Boyle has quite rightly said in the public domain that it is vital for the Scottish Government to act with transparency in the planned expenditure of Covid-19 money and how that spending is delivered. Indeed, the submission talks about following the public pound. Following on from previous answers, I wonder whether Audit Scotland, too, is doing that. I accept that it might not be about designating people to do the so-called Covid-19 work, but surely you are undertaking certain activities because of Covid-19. A discrete set of individuals or resources might not have been allocated to Covid-19 activities, but you must be able to identify the percentage of work in each audit or in other pieces of work that have arisen because of the pandemic. Are you identifying and tracking that? Do you need to look at what activities you are having to undertake because of Covid-19 to ensure that you can track and manage that work?

Chair, the witnesses have just touched on resources. If you are going to ask a question about that, I might be better coming in after that rather than pre-empting your question.