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On a completely different issue, I note that, for the first time, the public sector pay policy includes a commitment to piloting a four-day working week, which I know will be welcomed by a number of unions. On the face of it, there is no immediate significant financial impact from the principle of the four-day working week or reducing the number of hours worked in a week for a similar level of pay, but how are you accounting for the pilot projects in the coming year’s pay policy?

Thank you very much.

You have clarified this morning that various portfolios are contributing to the £200 million that you announced last week for business and self-isolation support. Can you confirm the breakdown in that respect? Is the contribution from portfolios coming from projected underspends, or have other priorities been paused or cancelled so that the money can be redeployed?

My apologies; I did not phrase my question very well. What I am trying to confirm is whether you still intend to use that money for the same purpose as you had planned, but at an earlier date, or whether it will now be deployed differently from how you had previously planned for it to be used in the budget.

Going back to Liz Smith’s questions on the Auditor General’s report on the underspend in 2021 that was carried over into 2021-22, I know that you have explained the reasons behind that and the purpose of doing it, but to what extent do you expect a similar underspend to be carried forward from this year into the 2022-23 budget?

I apologise for the fact that I had to step away from the meeting for a couple of moments to take a call, convener. If any of the questions that I am about to ask have been covered by a colleague, please interject and tell me to check the Official Report later.

Cabinet secretary, in response to John Mason’s question, you clarified that the initial £220 million that was announced last week by the UK Government in response to omicron was money that the Scottish Government had budgeted for in next year’s budget. Was that committed to other priorities, or is it all being used for the same Covid-specific purpose, meaning that it is being spent in exactly the same way as planned, just earlier than intended?

The context for my question was a wider concern about when it comes to consultation with and the involvement of employers in the development of SDS policy and systems such as FIPS. I used FIPS as an example. In that previous meeting, a wider frustration was expressed about the need to have employers in the room and to give them a voice as systems are developed. Taking on board what you have just said about the involvement of employers in the use of the system, which was very useful, when systems like this are being developed, what kind of user testing and consultation do you do with employers so that they are clear about exactly how it operates, what their role is or is not, and how they should engage with the system and with providers?

How are employers supported to make sure that their apprentices are on FIPS? Forgive me, but I am not familiar with how long the FIPS system has been in operation. I do not know whether it is relatively new or whether it has been around for a while.

Therefore, this is a business-specific issue with the one contractor—the one provider—and you are not encountering multiple instances of delays in registration.

Thank you, convener. I want to make sure. Can you hear and see me okay?