Chamber and committees

Good morning, gentlemen. I have some questions on what the Scottish Government is doing with its budget but, before I come to them, I will follow up on the previous discussion.

Marc Crothall mentioned some of the UK-wide pressures on the industry, such as VAT, interest rates and energy costs, but is there a specific Scottish angle? To contextualise it, I read a press report at the weekend from, I think, the Scottish Beer and Pub Association, which is the rival lobby group to Colin Wilkinson’s. According to its figures, pubs in Scotland are closing at twice the rate of those in England. I appreciate that there are UK-wide issues, which we have discussed, but are there specific Scottish issues that make the situation more difficult here?

I will bring in Leon Thompson in a minute, but I will follow that up first. Some of these issues are not restricted to Scotland or the UK. Just before Christmas, I had a meeting with the German consul general, who said that, in Berlin, a lot of the restaurants are now shut two or three days a week because they cannot get the staff. There are issues that go beyond Scotland and the UK, but I am trying to focus on whether there are specifically Scottish angles here.

I have a specific follow-up question on business rates. You have all made the plea for the 75 per cent business rates relief that applies south of the border to be replicated in the Scottish budget. The Fraser of Allander Institute has said that that would be relatively more expensive in Scotland due to the different structure of the industry here. As I understand it, there is a cap that applies above a certain level in England and, because there are more larger businesses in England, more businesses hit that cap and do not get the relief. I am interested to get your reaction to that, given that, even if you were to take all the Barnett consequentials from that in the budget, it would still not be enough to fund the full 75 per cent relief for everybody in the sector.

Good morning, minister. Kevin Stewart just stole my question on sustainable aviation fuels, so I do not need to follow that up.

Thanks very much for that.

Some of the community groups and the local authorities that we spoke to expressed concern about the role of SNIB as the key driver and the lack of engagement with it. Given that SNIB is intended to be an arm’s-length independent body, how will the Scottish Government ensure that it delivers on the fund’s objectives, if it also has an element of freedom of operation?

The trajectory is not encouraging. There is £50 million this year, and that is going down to £12 million next year. Are you confident that you will get to £500 million?

Good morning, minister. Colleagues have touched on the just transition fund, but I have a few more questions specifically on the fund and how it operates.

Some witnesses whom we have taken evidence from have told us that they are not clear what the fund’s objectives are or how it will be monitored and evaluated. How does the Scottish Government see the objectives of the fund, and how do you expect to monitor and evaluate how that money is being spent?

Another issue that came up a lot, particularly from the community groups, was that there was funding for capital but not for revenue. It means that, with projects intended to run for a period of years, it is difficult to find secure funding to sustain them. Are you conscious of that? Can anything be done in that space?

All right. Thank you.

My final question is about the quantum of funding. According to the figures that we have for the current year, £50 million of funding was allocated in 2023-24. In the next financial year, the figure will be £12 million. Why is there such a big reduction in funding in the coming year?