Chamber and committees

Our next item of business is an evidence session with Richard Lochhead MSP, the Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work. The purpose of the session is to discuss with the minister the Scottish Government’s just transition plans and progress, with the intention of our doing future work on that. I welcome Richard Lochhead, who is joined by Catriona Laing, who is the deputy director of the climate change division at the Scottish Government.

It would be helpful if members and witnesses would keep their answers as short and concise as possible. I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

Professor Skea, you referred to an engagement event in Aberdeen. Is that part of that work?

Okay—thank you.

Professor Skea, towards the end of your comments you raised some questions around the role of the JTC and you mentioned that there is a lack of clarity on what is expected of commission members.

Yes—we do not want to compromise him in any way.

I have a final question tied to benchmarking before Maggie Chapman comes in. The decision on what to benchmark leads to an understanding of what just transition means. Is there a shared understanding across Government and policymakers on what the benchmarks are expected to be? Is “just transition” too broad a term, or is there an understanding of what we should be looking to measure?

We appreciate that James Withers is currently undertaking a skills inquiry and is due to produce a report in April. Has he managed to have time to engage with the Just Transition Commission yet?

I have one more question before I move to Jamie Halcro Johnston. We have had a very broad discussion. It was the commission’s recommendation that a minister be appointed. This is not a reflection on the minister personally, but do you think that the ministerial role has enough weight to have influence across Government, given that it is a very cross-cutting area?

Maggie Chapman has a supplementary question.

Our next item of business is an evidence session with the Just Transition Commission, the purpose of which is to provide members with an introduction to its work. Professor Jim Skea, its chair, is joined by Elliot Ross, who is the head of the commission secretariat. Welcome.

As always, I ask members and witnesses to keep answers and questions as concise as possible. I invite Professor Skea to make an opening statement.

Good morning and welcome to the 27th meeting in 2022 of the Economy and Fair Work Committee. There are no apologies from members, although Colin Beattie, the deputy convener, will be joining us at about 10 o’clock.

Our first item of business is to decide whether to take item 3 in private. Are members content to do so?

Members indicated agreement.