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Alex Salmond asked to clarify college funding figures Alex Salmond says sorry for using wrong college funding figures
(about 2 hours later)
Opposition parties have asked the first minister to return to the Holyrood chamber to clarify whether he misled MSPs over college funding figures. First Minister Alex Salmond has apologised to MSPs for using incorrect figures in relation to college funding.
Earlier Alex Salmond told the parliament that funding in the sector was going up. Labour had asked him to return to the chamber to clarify whether he had misled MSPs during his weekly question and answer session at Holyrood.
But Labour and the Tories claimed that his Education Secretary Mike Russell told MSPs last month that funding had gone down. Earlier Mr Salmond had told parliament funding in the sector was going up.
Officials have now been asked to check Mr Salmond's figures. He said he had not been misleading and had used the figures in good faith. Mr Salmond added that his Education Secretary Mike Russell was also sorry.
Before the afternoon's parliamentary business got under way, Labour lodged a point of order on the matter.Before the afternoon's parliamentary business got under way, Labour lodged a point of order on the matter.
The party's education spokesman Hugh Henry said the first minister had been guilty either of incompetence or of misleading parliament.
The party's education spokesman Hugh Henry said the first minister was guilty either of incompetence or of misleading parliament.
Deputy Presiding Officer John Scott said the veracity or otherwise of ministerial statements was not a matter for him.Deputy Presiding Officer John Scott said the veracity or otherwise of ministerial statements was not a matter for him.
The SNP's business manager Joe Fitzpatrick then intervened to say there was an apparent disparity between the figures published by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICE) and the figures cited by ministers.
This would be investigated and parliament informed later as to the outcome, he added. The apology came after Mr Salmond had insisted during FMQs that resource funding for colleges was up.
He was responding to questions from Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, who said Mr Russell had misled the parliament over college funding figures.
Mr Salmond responded: "He [Mr Russell] was correct, the funding position, resource funding for colleges, is £545m in 2011-12 and in 2012-13 it's £546m."
But Ms Lamont told the first minister both the Auditor General and figures from the Scottish Parliament's independent information centre showed that "the cabinet secretary was, in fact, wrong".
She said: "College budgets have been cut this year. In the light of these independently-sourced facts, was Mike Russell right or was he misleading parliament?"
However, Mr Salmond insisted the public spending watchdog had failed to take account of funding announced after the SNP unveiled its draft budget.