Chamber and committees

I invite Alexander Burnett to direct his question to Lisa Pattoni, who is also here from Skills Development Scotland. If Chris comes back, we can direct it at him, as well.

Before I call Gordon MacDonald, I note that four members still want to ask questions. I know that the conversation has been wide ranging, but I would appreciate it if people could keep their questions and answers concise.

Thank you for those very helpful responses, which have touched on many of the issues that the committee will want to ask about.

What will be the likely impact of the furlough scheme coming to an end in September? Some issues such as labour shortages are getting a very high profile at the moment, and some have argued that ending furlough might ease the situation. What are the difficulties in that respect? Are we at the stage where we can end furlough and businesses are able to redeploy people? Again, that question is for Mr Singh and Mr McCulloch.

Thank you, Mr Singh. Are we able to hear from Barry McCulloch from the Federation of Small Businesses Scotland?

Agenda item 3 is consideration of a Scottish Government consent notification for a UK statutory instrument. The committee is invited to consider the consent notification for the Public Procurement (Agreement on Government Procurement) (Amendment) (No 2) Regulations 2021. The Scottish Government gave consent during the campaign recess. At the end of the previous session, it was agreed that, during the campaign recess, the Scottish Government would give its consent to UK statutory instruments and then notify the Parliament at the start of session 6. The Parliament’s consent is not sought for such SIs, but it still has the opportunity to hold the Scottish Government to account for its decision to consent.

The purpose of the instrument is to make technical changes to domestic UK and Scottish procurement legislation to ensure that it reflects the UK’s accession to the World Trade Organization Government procurement agreement in its own right.

Are members content to note the consent notification?

Members indicated agreement.

We will now move into private session for the remaining agenda items.

Yes. We can hear you now.

I am keen to move on to the next questions, but I understand that Carolyn Currie and Rose Marley would like to comment on this issue. I ask them to do so briefly.

We did not quite catch the end of what you said. If you would like to wind up, we will hear your final comments.

I will bring in Maggie Chapman, who has a brief question to close the evidence session.