Chamber and committees

The first thing to say is that, in Scotland, we have near record-low levels of unemployment at 3.8 per cent compared with 4.2 per cent for the rest of the UK. Again, I am not complacent about that, and it brings its own challenges for employers, including on skills and access to labour. It is important that we continue to assess the skills landscape, which is what Graeme Dey is doing in response to the Withers review, in order to ensure that we have a skills system that is as responsive as possible to the needs of employers and the needs of those who want to enter the employment market for the first time or want to transition within the labour market and move on, such as in the energy sector. We will continue to focus on that area. Graeme Dey is obviously very exercised and is going round the employer networks, the skills sector and others to ensure that our response to Withers is as informed as possible and that we come forward with a landscape that will be as supportive as possible for those who are seeking access to skilled employees and for those who are looking to retrain.

Employability will, obviously, be a shared responsibility between Mr Dey and me, but the Government is making increased investments in the college, university and school sectors. There is, I think, an increase of £158 million in further and higher education through this budget. I will need to get that checked. We are continuing to invest in the skills system to ensure that we are meeting the needs of not only those who need to get on in work but those who are looking to access the labour market.

I thank Mr Stewart for that and for highlighting the good work of the business in his constituency.

I was in the north-east—in Aberdeen—with the First Minister for the launch of Scottish Enterprise’s new corporate plan, which is focused on three key priorities, one of which is inspiring innovation. Its investment decisions are filtered through those lenses, one of which is around inspiring continued innovation. We continue to expand through the budget the likes of the Techscaler network, which is about providing the ecosystem that ensures that new business start-ups are able to establish. We also continue to support the likes of SNIB and others that provide some of the early stage investment, but there are other opportunities and areas regarding early stage investment opportunities in Scotland on which I am happy to follow up in writing.

That last thing that I would say is that, particularly in the energy space, we are cognisant of the fact that we need to plot a path and set a direction of travel for what we are looking to focus our public sector funding on, not just for the new renewable energy supply chain—the offshore wind supply chain—that we are looking to see established in Scotland, but for the catalytic impact that those investments can have in leveraging private investment. That is why the green industrial strategy that we will publish before the summer will be so important. It will take decisions and will say that we will prioritise certain sectors. In some cases, that will mean that some people are not happy, but we will take decisions on the basis of the evidence that we have received from our engagement and the support that we have received from the likes of the First Minister’s investor panel.

As Mr Stewart will understand, when we talk about innovation and early stage investment support, a risk is attached. We have to accept that there will be an element of risk. Some innovations will flourish and the businesses will do incredibly well, and we want to see that in Scotland. Others, in some cases, will not do as well, but I want to make sure that we have an ecosystem that supports innovation, where new businesses can establish and which attracts further capital from private sector investment. We are already seeing the early stages of that good work come through, but I want to see more.

No, not particularly. As I have said, I would point to the work that is being done by Scottish Enterprise on the priorities that it is taking forward to ensure that we take greatest advantage of the greatest economic opportunity that we have before us, which is our energy transition—that is, the just transition.

There is obviously a climate imperative: we need to ensure that we tackle climate change. However, although we have clear responsibilities in that respect, it also represents our greatest economic opportunity. Indeed, we know as much from the investor panel’s recommendations, which point to the fact that Scotland itself provides the greatest opportunity for us to leverage private capital.

I will bring in Colin Cook to provide greater detail.

I have not had that communicated to me, no.

Efficiency will obviously be important to public sector reform, but we are not looking at public sector reform purely on the basis of reductions in spending. That process is being led by the Deputy First Minister, and we have embarked on ensuring that our business support landscape is as efficient as possible, which will include looking at the work that is done by Business Gateway and our enterprise agencies, and at the role of our regional economic partnerships, to ensure that we have a clear business support landscape that responds to the needs of business and which allows people, depending on which part of their journey they are on, their location or the sector that they are in, to understand which door to turn to in order to receive the support that they need.

I have had early discussions with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, which has responsibility for Business Gateway, and with other parties to ensure that the public sector reform piece that comes forward meets those ambitions and aligns with the direction of travel that we have given to our enterprise agencies. I would point again to the corporate plan that Scottish Enterprise has published, which will ensure that it focuses on the key priority areas and that those areas are aligned with our priorities for the national strategy for economic transformation—of which, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, we are undertaking a refresh to ensure that we are focused and that we prioritise those actions across the 10-year plan.

I cannot put a timescale on that, but the discussions are on-going.

As somebody who is originally from Orkney, and having visited it during the Christmas recess, I can confirm that the connectivity, particularly for mobile data, is much improved. You are correct about the connectivity for Fair Isle, and I am happy to provide a further update to the committee with more detail on the proposed work that we have coming forward on the expansion of R100 to our island communities. That update will satisfy your inquiries.

We are making substantial investments in education and health. The budget for both areas is up, the local government settlement is up and the NHS budget is up. I acknowledge Mr Whittle’s assessment that we need to make sure that we have a healthy workforce and to invest to ensure that we do. Ensuring that we have minimum unit pricing and that we tackle availability of unhealthy products are among the areas on which we need to move forward. I look forward to working with Mr Whittle on those things in order to ensure that they are got right and that, where we agree, we can move forward as quickly as possible, although those matters are predominantly outwith my portfolio responsibilities.

I recognise that we need to ensure that our skills landscape is supportive. As I said in previous remarks to Maggie Chapman and Kevin Stewart, we need a good skills landscape to ensure that we are providing the labour market with opportunities. That allows businesses to grow and it allows people to get on with taking advantage of the just transition that we see in the energy sector, for instance.

The figure that you point to on higher education places was, of course, a temporary investment off the back of Covid. The current figures are returning to pre-Covid levels, but we will of course continue to work with our university sector. Indeed, I have a meeting next week to discuss how we can take full advantage of the innovation that is going on in the sector and the investment that we are making in entrepreneurial campuses. At the University of Strathclyde last week, I saw incredible work on the entrepreneurial support that it is providing to its students; I saw the benefits from that, not just to business start-ups but in the income potential that it can achieve; and I saw the collaborative work that is going on with our universities to see the level of investment grow.

We have big opportunities. I recognise the challenges, but we will continue to work with our skills colleagues. As I have said, Graeme Dey is incredibly energised to make sure that our response to the Withers review will result in a supportive skills landscape. We will make sure that the resource that we put behind it is as much as we possibly can provide in order to ensure that we have a landscape that is as supportive as possible, not just for our employers but for our workforce.