Chamber and committees

The same would apply to getting people to the ferries on the mainland, as well as to what happens on the other side of the water.

Perhaps the two of you can give me a one-word answer to this question: should the islands connectivity plan that is being developed go wider than just ferries and look not just at what transport means on the islands but at connectivity to ferry ports on the mainland, too? Would your unions agree to that?

I will stay with you just now, Gordon, but I put Martyn Gray on standby, because I want to ask him the same questions.

All of this leads us on to project Neptune, of which there has, I think, been a great deal of criticism. However, it has delivered a report that contains extensive information. Is there anything that can be taken from project Neptune that would help to deliver better outcomes? I want to concentrate on what we want for the future rather than on what we do not want.

Just because it is complicated and hard, that does not mean that we do not look at it and see what we can do, as it might well be the right thing to do.

Perhaps I can bring in Dermot Rhatigan for an additional comment on timber. Dermot, can you also talk about cement and how realistic the approach is in that respect? If we can crack the issue of cement in an environmental impact sense, it will give us a dual hit with regard to local supply—

That is why the Government can have a role. We are interested in what it is doing and there is clearly potential for it to address the matter through building regulations. We want assurance that you are not just being passive in the matter but that the Government is taking an active role.

To what extent has there been a step change for engineering companies because of the continuing crisis that we face as a result of, for instance, Brexit? We got quite a blunt view from the chair of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland that, over decades, Scotland had lost key manufacturing and engineering skills. Therefore, if we are trying to build resilience and areas for growth, not least in renewable energy, we need to undertake quite a lot of development.

Looking at NMIS’s work on low carbon, to what extent has there been a shift of the dial through its impact on the number of companies that it is working with? How do we tackle that manufacturing and engineering challenge? It is clear that centralisation across the UK and internationally has meant that we do not do as much of that kind of work as we would have done previously. We cannot micromanage everything, but to what extent does that mean helping such companies to develop?

We hear from the engineering sector in particular that businesses might not get contracts for five years, but they must start building capacity now. Therefore, the issue is what, if anything, the public sector can do—I am thinking of something like a bridging development—to enable them to build up capacity and skills in their companies, so that they are ready to get their share of the contracts. Some of the contracts will come sooner but, as some of them might not come for some time, the public sector has a role in building resilience—otherwise, we will not have the supply chain that we want.

Who leads on that? Is it you or Michael Matheson?

Please share.

Good morning, minister, and thank you for your letter responding to our report. Of course, you also gave evidence to the committee during the inquiry, so this is the second time that we are engaging with you on the resilience of the supply chain in Scotland. It is a continuing issue, not least because of the on-going issues around Covid, as we have just heard, as well as issues around the hard Brexit and the impact of the situation in Ukraine.

I will focus on manufacturing, engineering and construction. We know that we cannot micromanage private markets, and the international obligations are understood, but we can create incentives. The committee is interested in the extent to which the experience of the disruptions that we have talked about has influenced change in supply chain markets generally.

On construction, we have heard about real disruptions over the period and about a desire in the sector to be able to source more locally, if that is possible. That is resilient and contributes to achieving net zero by tackling the issue of carbon miles. What improvements have there been in that regard?

In relation to timber—we have a debate in Parliament this afternoon on forestry and net zero—what improvements have there been in local sourcing of timber? Can we use business regulations in that regard? To what extent can you influence pan-Government measures that can help, such as business regulations and measures on low-carbon materials? What is the potential for some kind of specification of carbon miles? That might have to be internationally agreed, but it is probably the direction in which we are going.