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I was going by the median remuneration that is cited on page 51 of the annual report and accounts. I understand what you say about the pay award, but your median pay has increased by only 2 per cent.

Thank you. In the interests of time, I will leave it there.

You mean small “i” independence.

There was a fair bit of discussion about the new accounting treatments for leases, which accounted for quite a big decrease in things such as transport costs. Do you feel that those have been treated adequately, and are those the differences that you would expect, given the application of the new standards?

Are you confident that that has all been applied as you would expect?

Perfect. Thank you.

Yes but, just to be clear, median remuneration went from £45,197 to £46,226, and that delta of around £1,000 is 2 per cent. I understand that those are all different cuts of the pie, and I do not dispute what you are saying, but it does not contradict what I was putting out there.

In the interests of time, we need to move on, so I have one last question, which is about pension contributions. Without wishing to point to anyone in particular at the table, I note that, in 2022-23, there was a £198,000 pension contribution made for Vicki Bibby and similarly, in the previous year, there was a £144,000 pension contribution to Antony Clark. Those figures are very high, certainly in comparison with annual salaries. I understand that there might be technical reasons, but I would be keen to get the explanation on the record so that we understand what is going on there.

Professor Alexander set out very well the context that everyone has operated in. The cost of living crisis is still with us, and inflation remains stubborn at 10 per cent, much to the surprise of various forecasters. However, your total resource requirement was £1 million under what was forecast. That in itself is somewhat surprising.

Could Stephen Boyle set out why that was the case? My understanding is that the majority of that was to do with staff underspend but, given the pay pressures, we might find that surprising. Do you apply underspend thresholds to the forecasts? Can you talk us through why and how you go about the forecasts, and whether they were correct?

I have one final question. One interesting point is about whether we have consistent understanding of roles throughout the Scottish Government. In my corporate life, we were obsessed with responsible, accountable, consulted and informed—RACI—models, and sometimes there is a blurring of those distinctions.

I want to zero in on what is understood as a programme board in the Scottish Government, because a number of different things are going on. Some programme boards look like programme boards as I understand them; they are for integrating different areas of delivery with Government officials. However, other programme boards seem more like consultation boards, because they have a lot of external bodies involved. Both of those functions are important, but they are different. A programme board should be internal and manage risk across projects, but there is external consultation on some of the boards. Is there an issue with the Scottish Government mixing metaphors and having clarity about the different strata of decisions and where integration and external consultation sit?

Is it a programme board as you would recognise it, though, or is it more of a round-table discussion forum?