The round figure £5 billion seems to have a recurring place in the Scottish Government’s fiscal landscape. A couple of months ago, the Public Finance minister, Ivan McKee, put that tag on “backroom savings” which could be made from “efficiencies”.

That seemed a lot, within a budget of £60 billion, and after a party has been in office for 18 years, it might be reasonable to ask why they didn’t think of this before, instead of spawning even more quangos and expensive stunts to remarkably little effect.

Now we learn from the Scottish Fiscal Commission that whoever is running the show after next May will face “really difficult choices” because they will be inheriting a “£5 billion black hole” with spending commitments far outweighing money available to pay for them.

In response, the Commission’s chair, Professor Graeme Roy, suggested that closing this gap will “require all parties in this Parliament and the next to work together to address the fiscal challenges”. He also called for the current Scottish Government to be “really frank in setting out how these gaps are going to be closed”.

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