The next item of business is First Minister's questions.

I call Russell Finley at question number one.

Thank you, President.

The Auditor General today confirms that the SNP has a 1.2 billion

pound black hole in social security spending.

That's 1.2 billion billion for this year alone.

And the SNP's benefit black hole is going to get even bigger, reaching £2 billion by 2030.

The Auditor General says this. The Scottish Government has not yet set out a detailed strategy

for how it will manage the forecast gap between Social Security funding and spending within

its overall budget. So this Government will spend £2 billion a year more on benefits than budgets provide.

Yet they have no plan to pay for it.

So will John Swinney tell us what his plan is, or if he even has one?

First Minister.

As Mr Finley knows, the Scottish Government is obliged on an annual basis to balance our

budget.

The Government has done that on every single occasion since we were elected to serve the

people of Scotland in 2007.

The issue that Mr Finley raises essentially comes down to, are we prepared to follow the benefit

policies of the United Kingdom, which involve cuts to support to people with disabilities,

some of the most vulnerable people in our society, and my government will

do no such thing.

Thank you.

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