BBC Democracy Live - First minister's questions 5 September 2013 Last updated at 13:23 Help Alex Salmond defended a disparity of over £500m in figures relating to the cost of major transport projects during first minister question time, on 5 September 2013. Labour leader Johann Lamont demanded to know how the government could "get its figures wrong" by such an amount. A report by Sir Peter Housden, permanent secretary to the Scottish government, put the capital value of the new Forth crossing; the Aberdeen bypass; improvements to the M8, M73 and M74 motorways; improvements to the Edinburgh to Glasgow rail line; and the new Borders railway at between £3.28 billion and £3.43 billion. However Audit Scotland gave a higher estimate for the five projects of about £3.8 billion. Sir Peter explained to MSPs on 4 September that while his figures cover the cost of building the projects, the Audit Scotland figures include other costs such as land purchase and preparatory work. Mr Salmond said "the question was: do you consider the cost of the project or the cost of things like buying land to prepare for a project?." Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said colleges must be spared from any cuts in the Scottish government's next budget. Mr Salmond said students were better off in Scotland and said the record north of the border was "inconceivably better" than the record in England. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie again pressed the first minister to extend nursery provision to all 2 year olds. Mr Salmond said the Lib Dem MSP should acknowledge the extension of free nursery provision for three and four-year-olds to 600 hours from next year. Provision would also be extended for looked-after two-year-olds, he said.