Chamber and committees

In your submission, you call for

“greater capitalisation of the Scottish National Investment Bank”.

I agree with that view. You also comment on the need for a “National Infrastructure Agency”. I also agree with that view. In that light, would you support increased borrowing powers for the Scottish Government to enable those much grander ideas to be taken forward? I am a bit concerned that, throughout our discussion, we have tended to focus on small taxes, such as LBTT, rather than on the shifts that will really make a difference to economic growth.

I think there is just one more response. Adam, did you want to contribute before we finish off this thread?

I thank Joanne Walker very much for her submission, which I enjoyed greatly. However, in the interests of time, I will confine my questions to Mr Robertson. I should declare that I have an interest in some buy-to-let property and that I am an ambassador for the all-party parliamentary group on fair business banking, which is based at Westminster.

I want to gently challenge you, Mr Robertson, in relation to the discussion that came up earlier about your comment that

“our well-respected property legal system is being undermined by changes to the landlord-tenant relationship”,

which you say

“could create a barrier to much needed future investment.”

In light of the considerable uncertainty in the trading environment, surely as big a factor is access to finance for businesses and the risk appetite of lenders, be they private equity or banks. Do you accept that that is the case?

I will move on to another area that we have not yet touched on. I am interested in your organisation’s reflections on the desire for home working, or at least a version of hybrid working, that has arisen—indeed, we can see it in our meeting today. How will that cause and necessitate change for the people who you represent?

That seems fine.

I want to start by asking you a closed question, to which you can answer yes or no, before I go into the main thrust of my questions. Do you routinely disaggregate the data in your surveys, including those that you carry out and those that you have commissioned, by sex/gender?

I can see a yes from Laura Mahon and a nod from Polly Tolley.

That just leaves Adam Stachura—he seems to be saying yes.

I have realised that it is not always best to ask closed questions, so I will move on to an open one. When I was preparing for this session and rereading the questions that you were asked to answer in making a written submission, the question that jumped out at me was:

“How should the Scottish Government’s Budget address the different impacts of the pandemic across age, income and education groups and across places?”

I was surprised that the question did not include sex or gender, although some of the submissions that we received, such as those from the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland and the Women’s Budget Group pointed that out and included evidence on the issue.

I thank you very much for all the data that you have supplied to us, but would you like to make any additional reflections on the particular impact of the pandemic on women and/or girls? I suspect that Polly Tolley will want to do that. Also, do you know of any costed policy initiatives that could have benefits for women or girls?

I can see some note taking happening. I think that John Dickie wants to go first.

I hope to hear from our other three witnesses on that.

I am conscious of the time, but could I please have the last few comments from the other two panellists, if they wish to contribute to this thread?

I realise that it is a slightly different question for Dave Moxham.