Chamber and committees

Skills Development Scotland does its own skills assessments. Representatives of that body gave evidence to your committee but I am not sure whether that issue was raised with them directly.

A lot of work is under way, and Skills Development Scotland continues to do regular skills assessments for the green energy sectors and the rest of the sectors in Scotland. The Energy Transition Zone in Aberdeen, for instance, is creating five skills hubs, and the cabinet secretary, Màiri McAllan, was at the recent launch of the key hub at North East Scotland College. The Scottish Government is putting, I think, around £4 million to £5 million towards that. There are a lot of exciting initiatives happening.

The Robert Gordon University has carried out a lot of work on the monitoring of skills, which the Scottish Government often refers to, laying out the challenges of the skills requirements between now and 2040 to 2050. RGU showed that, if we play our cards right, we could have more energy jobs than we have now in north-east Scotland and across the country.

Many companies that speak to me talk about shortages in skills and labour. It is not just an issue of people transferring from one sector to another; there are quite often jobs available for people who are looking for them. It is about making sure that we have upskilling in place. RGU, the University of Aberdeen and others in north-east Scotland are doing a lot of work on upskilling, short courses and so on, so we have to support that.

Yes. We are determined to take stock of many elements of the fund this year. You have covered a few of them. Once the committee issues its inquiry report, there will be helpful information or ideas in that to assist us. You have raised issues today on, for example, communication and how we report that I want to take away and sort out this year.

I am happy to write to the committee with some of the timelines. On the broad context, we have said that, by the summer, we will publish the final document for the energy strategy and just transition plan. Also in 2024, we will begin work to put in place the framework for how we will take forward regional just transition plans for Scotland. That will obviously take some time, but we are beginning the work this year on the framework for doing that.

On the sectoral plans, the consultation has taken place for the three plans that are under way. I ask Catriona Laing to give the latest estimate of when they will be available.

That is a good point, and I recognise that issue. We will absolutely monitor that and listen to the concerns expressed by community groups or, indeed, the just transition lab. Indeed, you may reflect some of those concerns in your report, which we will respond to in due course.

Yes, it is an area in which the Scottish Government has influence and responsibility, and we recognise it as one of the challenges. If my ministerial colleague Tom Arthur were sitting here, he would explain to you how the latest national planning framework prioritises renewable energy developments, which should speed up the process for them. There is also the recently published onshore wind sector deal, which lays down what we expect to be delivered by onshore wind developers for Scotland’s benefit but, likewise, gives commitments by the Scottish Government on helping develop Scotland’s onshore wind potential. It also includes a commitment to drastically reducing the time for licensing and planning.

The first point to make is that, if any MSP or party in Parliament believes that the budget needs to be amended, there is a draft budget before Parliament and they can use the opportunity to make proposals, if they can explain where the alternative resources will come from to increase any particular budget.

The financial environment is very tight just now and I cannot sit here and give guarantees about substantial increases in such funds at the moment, but I can say that there has been an increase in the number of apprenticeships for green industries and so on.

The member referred to the overall picture, but I am talking about this particular agenda. Things are going in the right direction. We have invested in a lot of really good training and skills initiatives through the just transition fund and, indeed, the special fund that was set up for that purpose in the past few years. We have the energy transition fund and also the training fund. A lot of good initiatives are under way in Scotland that are being supported by the public purse.

I am happy to look at the specific issue of employees paying for their own training and to come back to the committee on that point, if that is helpful.

The challenge is clearly that we need the transformational projects to be up and running as quickly as possible. They need to be under way, whether they are offshore or the many onshore projects that are being considered—carbon capture and storage plans and so on.

The UK Government also has a big role to play in this; it is not all in the hands of the Scottish Government. We need the UK Government to put its shoulder to the wheel and do everything that it can to ensure that the carbon capture and storage plans are moving forward at pace. We finally got over the hurdle of the Acorn project getting the go-ahead. It took a long time to get there—far too long—and tens of thousands of jobs will be created through that alone.

The wider economic environment is also a challenge at a time of high interest rates, which of course have an impact on decisions to invest in new capital projects and pipeline projects and the pace at which they can be brought forward. That is all influenced by the wider macroeconomic environment. Again, that is not just for the Scottish Government; it is a UK Government issue. Those are the kinds of challenges that we are facing.

It is important to make a couple of points to the committee about the jobs environment. First, Scotland is leading in virtually all the league tables across the UK for the creation of green jobs. We are ahead, whether it is in PWC or Ernst & Young’s analyses or various other analyses that are being carried out. We are consistently creating and advertising more green jobs in Scotland than any other part of the UK.

A green jobs revolution is therefore under way in Scotland, and we should appreciate that. I know that some people want it to go faster, and I understand that we need to do more. Independent research carried out by the University of Warwick at the behest of Skills Development Scotland said that up to 100,000 new green jobs were being created in Scotland. The recent Fraser of Allander Institute report, commissioned by Scottish Renewables, said that there are now—I am just trying to remember the figure—42,000 full-time equivalent jobs in renewables in Scotland. Other figures are often cited, but that is the latest one. It is all going in the right direction. Tens of thousands of new jobs are being created in Scotland in green sectors.

There is another aspect that we will have to get to the bottom of. I often visit businesses in north-east Scotland, particularly in Aberdeen, that are counted as oil and gas companies but are doing 50 per cent to 70 per cent of their work on renewables. We have to work with the Office for National Statistics and other authorities to make sure that the statistics that they design and collect are more accurate. When I go to a company that is classed as “engineering” or “oil and gas”, I find it ironic that it is working on renewables. We have to capture that, because it is part of the renewables and the green jobs revolution that is happening in Scotland.

We have £75 million that we would otherwise not have had, had we not had the just transition fund just for north-east Scotland and Moray. It is a fund that is not available from the UK Government; it is from the Scottish Government, so it is an added value fund.

It is probably best if I write to you with the latest timelines for all those plans.

UK decisions are clearly fundamental to the just transition. We saw the recent change in the offer to offshore wind projects, which the UK Government had to revisit after there was a lack of applications for offshore wind sites in recent licensing rounds. In light of that lack of applications, the UK Government took a decision to address that to encourage more offshore wind licence applications.

The UK Government’s spending priorities influence hugely the ability to implement a just transition in Scotland. Just now, the Scottish Government is dealing with a difficult budget settlement, which impacts on what we can invest in all kinds of just transition activities and the net zero agenda—that is well documented. The Cabinet, First Minister and others have made lots of comment on that.

Yes, as a general principle, the UK Government’s funding decisions, which are often not helpful, have a direct impact on the ability to deliver a just transition in Scotland.