Chamber and committees

As members will have observed, David Thomson has had to leave us. It is for understandable reasons, and he has given his apologies for the rest of the meeting.

I call Colin Beattie, to be followed by Fiona Hyslop.

Would anyone else like to respond to Michelle Thomson’s question or has Paul Sheerin covered it?

Has anybody had more recent discussions in relation to that?

That is helpful. Thank you.

Before recess, we had a panel of witnesses from the hospitality and tourism sector. They described the cost of living crisis as a greater challenge for them than Covid and compared the support that they got for businesses to survive during the pandemic to what they are getting now.

I do not get the same impression from this morning’s witnesses. I do not know whether Covid was easier for your sectors to cope with than it was for hospitality and tourism. Can the challenges with which businesses are presented at the moment be compared to the lockdowns that we had with the pandemic? Do you see any parallels between the support that you would expect or have seen from Government for the current situation and the support that there was during the pandemic?

I thank the witnesses for sharing their expertise and experience with us.

We now move into private.

In the budget, there is a proposed reduction of £53 million in the employability budget for this year. That money is focused on those who are furthest from the labour market. The Government has justified it by saying that the labour market is tight and that people are not short of employment. However, it would reduce the services available to the harder-to-reach members of the workforce. Do you have any concerns about that?

Our next item of business is the second cost crisis evidence session as part of the committee’s pre-budget scrutiny work. The purpose is to inform the committee’s pre-budget scrutiny work with the aim of influencing the budget before spending priorities for the next financial year are decided on.

I welcome to the meeting Euan Clark, the commercial director of the Scottish Building Federation; Ian Laird, the chair of the Scottish Textile Industry Leadership Group; Paul Sheerin, the chief executive officer of Scottish Engineering; and David Thomson, the chief executive of the Food & Drink Federation Scotland. David joins us online. I thank the witnesses for joining us.

We decided to look at the cost of doing business as part of our budget scrutiny, but that was more than 45 days ago and quite a lot has happened during the past 45 days. Our reason for that was high energy costs and recognition of the fact that your sectors are high energy users. Has the response from the Governments been sufficient for you to cope with the rises that you have seen? Does there need to be further action by the United Kingdom Government, in particular, which has come forward with measures on energy use?

The committee is looking at the cost of doing business. What are the factors that drive that cost up for your members, Paul Sheerin? Is it energy, or are other factors more significant?

The UK Government.