Chamber and committees

Louise, hospitality’s share of the economy is smaller, but the number of people who are employed in it is larger. You have raised a number of concerns about non-domestic rates and reliefs. However, I am not really seeing any pounds, shillings and pence being applied here. It is always frustrating for us looking at finance when people tell us what needs to be done without saying what additional resources will need to go into, say, supporting the hospitality sector. You have mentioned a number of areas where it can be supported, but what additional funding is the sector looking for across Scotland and how would that be financed?

What is the tipping point that you refer to in relation to taxation?

Sandy, where do you stand on issues such as investing public money in setting up new businesses and supporting innovation and start-ups?

A couple of weeks ago, I attended your reception in the garden lobby, which you spoke at. It was interesting that BlackRock pointed out that it is going to increase its workforce in Edinburgh from 1,000 to 1,500. Financial services forms 13 per cent of Edinburgh’s workforce but 30 per cent of the economy, so the sector punches well above its weight. BlackRock is to employ another 500 people and, if my memory serves me, I think that it manages £10 trillion—or whatever it is—of funds. The base is strong, but we must maintain the competitive advantage.

It is important to have start-ups and to support innovation in new businesses, certainly at Rachel Cook’s end of the scale, but is it also important to ensure that larger businesses continue to grow and thrive?

That is very helpful. I have a final question for you, before I open up to colleagues. You talked about business rates and the need to perhaps look again at them in relation to supporting the hospitality sector. Those reliefs are obviously a blunt tool, although a welcome one. What other help can the Scottish Government provide to help to grow and ensure the long-term survival and prosperity of the hospitality sector?

Before I let John Mason come in, Michelle Thomson has a supplementary question.

Good morning, and welcome to the 24th meeting in 2023 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. Under our first agenda item, we will take evidence from the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport on the financial memorandum for the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. The minister is joined by Scottish Government officials Donna Bell, the director of social care and national care service development, and Fiona Bennett, the interim deputy director for national health service, integration and social care finance. I welcome the witnesses to the meeting.

I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

I know that consultancy figures are around £246,000 less than anticipated, but it still seems an awful lot of money for training people on a bill when we do not know how it will look. It is clear in the papers that we have received that a lot of the co-design work continues to take place. What was the staff training on?

You will understand that that makes scrutiny quite difficult. Minister, in your letter of 9 May, you said:

“It is not possible to separate costs relating to the provisions of the Bill and those which result from the wider NCS programme.”

That makes it very difficult to assess whether public money is being spent effectively. Can you give us a wee bit more information on that? One reason that the financial memorandum caused such alarm to the committee was because we were not getting those breakdowns and because of the scale of the money involved.

I will go into the figures in a minute or two, just before I let colleagues in, but I note that you said in your letter:

“An initial consensus proposal between the Scottish Government and Cosla (on behalf of local government) has been formed on a partnership approach that will provide for shared legal accountability. This will improve the experience of people accessing services by introducing a new structure of national oversight to drive consistency of outcomes, whilst maximising the benefits of a reformed local service delivery.”

You have also talked about the formation of a national board to provide

“national oversight and governance of social work, social care support and community health”.

How will that body actually work? When is it likely to be up and running, so to speak?