Chamber and committees

Would Nick Shields like to respond? That would give you the opportunity to set out how Scottish Enterprise is responding to the additional pressures in the supply chain over the past 18 months.

I will bring in Colin Beattie. Thank you for your patience.

The substantive part of the meeting is an evidence session on Scotland’s supply chain. We are looking at the short-term and medium-term challenges for Scotland’s supply chain and how those and the shifts in the supply chain are impacting on Scotland’s economy. We are also interested in long-term solutions. We want to consider how to build future resilience and whether there are opportunities to develop domestic supply chains in Scotland.

I am pleased to welcome our witnesses. Professor Iain Bomphray is the director of the lightweight manufacturing centre, Professor Keith Ridgway is the executive chair of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, and Nick Shields is the head of business support services at Scottish Enterprise. As always, I ask members and witnesses to keep questions and answers as concise as possible. It is helpful if members indicate which of the witnesses they would like to respond to their questions. That will make it easier for broadcasting to keep us on track.

I will start the questions. Professor Bomphray, the committee is looking at some of the solutions to the supply chain challenges that we face. Over the course of the inquiry—we are in the last stages now—we have identified the pressures due to Covid, different trading arrangements resulting from Brexit, labour supply and skills markets. Those are the pressure points that we have identified. Yours is an organisation that looks to respond to some of those challenges, which have existed for a few years. The landscape for supply chains has also changed dramatically since the Covid pandemic started. As an organisation, have you changed? How are you responding? Do you agree that we have identified the correct pressures? What impact have those pressures had on what you are trying to achieve? Have they made your work more challenging? Perhaps you could talk a wee bit about where the organisation is at.

Sorry, Mr Ireland, but, because the questioning is taking a while, I ask you to answer briefly.

Good morning and welcome to the 14th meeting in 2021 of the Economy and Fair Work Committee.

Our first item of business is a decision on whether to take agenda item 4 in private. Are members content to do that?

Members indicated agreement.

I ask Stephen Kemp whether his understanding of the situation is similar to that of Mr Banks. Would you like to add anything?

I am sorry; I picked that up wrong. Have you thought of the Scottish National Investment Bank as an option, or is it not appropriate for your situation?

We move to agenda item 3, which is consideration of a Scottish statutory instrument, which the committee is invited to note. The amending instrument was considered by the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee on 30 November. It noted that the SSI rectifies the errors that were previously identified and that no new points were raised. Do members agree to note the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

We move into private session for the remaining agenda items.

That is helpful—thank you.