Minister for Higher and Further Education Graeme Dey has failed to explain how the government will fund a recurring £4.5m boost for colleges to increase lecturer pay. 

MSPs were left unimpressed on Wednesday when they pressed Mr Dey for explicit details on how the promised funding would impact public spending once the extra £4.5m kicks in in 2025/26.

The discussions come as government departments prepare their books for the upcoming budget session, and shortly after Finance Minister Shona Robinson announced half a billion in spending cuts.

Nearly two years of industrial dispute ended last week when college lecturers' union EIS-FELA accepted a revised pay offer from employers.

Both sides made it clear that the decisive offer was only possible thanks to the Scottish Government's last-minute promise to provide the £4.5m needed to bridge the gap between union demands and college affordability beyond the 2025/26 academic year. 

On Wednesday morning, Minister Graeme Dey gave an hour and a half of evidence to the Scottish Government's Education, Children and Young People Committee. The evidence covered details relating to the ongoing financial pressures facing colleges and universities as part of the committee's ongoing pre-budget hearings.

Towards the end of the sessions, Scottish Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy asked Mr Dey where the £4.5m would come from.

Mr Dey said: "Ms Duncan-Glancy will recognise that we are working our way through this year's budget still and that the committee's focus is on next year. 

"We are looking actively at where we will fund that one.

"What I can assure the committee is that we have given clear assurance to both parties that the £4.5m will be additional to the settlement, and clearly additional, to the settlement that colleges will be receiving."

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie asked to intervene with a follow-up question.

"You don't know where the money is coming from?

"How can you come before this committee and tell us you don't know where the money is coming from?"

Mr Dey attempted to clarify and reiterated that "we are currently working on that, we don't know what our budget will be for that year."

Mr Dey was referencing the fact that the £4.5m is meant to support the fourth and final year of the agreed pay deal, which will see lecturers receive a £5,000 consolidated pay rise across the 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years, as well as a further increase of 4.14% in 2025/26.

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Mr Rennie pressed, saying that the government is responsible for finding the money and delivering on the agreement and that not giving details on where the money will come from offers a shaky foundation.

Mr Dey promised again that the government would deliver on the agreement. When asked by Ms Duncan-Glancy if the promised funding might mean a need for in-year budget changes, Mr Dey hit back at members by suggesting that scrutiny over the logistics of the funding amounted to discrediting the agreement itself.

"You're contradicting your comments from earlier. Earlier, you said you welcomed this, but now you're picking holes in the approach to it. We got a resolution for what is, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively small sum of money.

"I happen to believe it is a more than worthwhile investment in settling the dispute, ending the impact on students, and creating the space for the long-term good of the sector.

"I think that is a price well worth paying."

Committee Convener Scottish Conservative and Unionist Sue Webber asked how the added cost will accommodated going forward.

"How is that going to be managed in the ongoing years?"

Mr Dey said: "It will be recurring. We recognise that in our commitment to the college employers that it's not just a one-off piece of funding. It will be included in the years to come as part of their settlement."

Ms Webber concluded the line of questioning saying that it would be "interesting to see how that develops."