Chamber and committees

Do you want to add anything, Professor Bell?

Iain Bomphray introduced the idea of thinking about how we marry procurement with other things. Obviously we would be undercut if we were the only country in the world that took such an approach, but could we lead by example and help to drive innovation while also helping to build resilience in the supply chain? We are interested in construction in particular, but that could apply to other areas.

Obviously, you are trying to get the private sector to see the market opportunity in that.

Nick Shields wants to come back in before I hand back to the convener. Colin Beattie has been very patient.

Thank you, Nick.

I will come to Keith Ridgway. I know that the work of the NMIS has been driven a lot by the low carbon and digital agenda, initially in the aerospace sector. Can that thinking be applied to resilience elsewhere, in particular in the construction sector?

Good morning, everyone. It is good to see you all. I am particularly interested in how we can marry the sustainability and resilience of domestic supply chains with the net zero goal. Much of what is imported comes from the far east, particularly in the construction sector, as we heard last week.

Getting back to the basics about construction helping with our recovery, we know that cement presents a global challenge. We discussed last week whether there is an opportunity to investigate the replacement of cement with next-generation materials and innovation. At the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee just yesterday, we heard about the potential in Scotland for carbon capture and storage to address some of the cement issues. If we do not address cement, we will not be able to address some of the net zero challenges, globally or domestically.

I am not sure whether cement is your area, but perhaps you can comment on how we marry the need to address supply-chain interruptions in key sectors by looking at how we do things domestically with the desire to become global innovators in moving towards net zero and the world that we need. How realistic would that be if we put our minds to it?

I will come to Nick Shields first, and then to the others. If cement in particular is not your thing, you can comment on the general concept in relation to the carbon miles issue. Is there a policy intervention—through procurement, for example—that could help the domestic economic innovation agenda?

Mike Tholen, do you want to comment briefly on that?

So it is a long game—

I come to Alan James. As we have just heard, the storage capability of Scotland is enormous, if not unique. Is it somewhat peculiar that the phase 1 criteria that was used by BEIS in its assessments did not involve the storage capability of Scotland for carbon capture and storage? Should that be revisited? Mike Tholen, you might want to come back in on that, but the question was specifically for Alan James.