Chamber and committees

Does anyone else want to comment?

Thank you very much for your contributions to our inquiry—they are much appreciated.

I suspend the meeting briefly to change over witnesses.

I think that you said that you are responsible for 70 per cent of procurement. Just so that I understand how NHS procurement works, can you say whether the boards have individual procurement?

Stephen Connor, what has been positive about the 2014 act and where might there be areas for improvement?

I come to Rob Mustard and Joe Rowan. As I understand it, Scottish Water as a body is not identified in the 2014 act, but it follows what is in there, which would suggest that you are quite keen on the act. Do you want to talk about the positives of the act?

I thank the witnesses for attending the meeting and for contributing to our inquiry.

You have both mentioned community wealth building. In our first evidence session of our inquiry, we discussed the pilots that have been running. There are five pilots, including one in Clackmannanshire. I do not think that you have been involved in the pilots, but have you had any feedback on them? They seem to be a way of trying to secure more local procurement.

Murdo Fraser and Kevin Stewart have questions.

It would be interesting to know more. We have had debates in Parliament about the extent to which AI is starting to be developed in the public sector. I know that we are in the early stages of the technology, but as has been said, there is awareness that it could be part of the solution.

Is Scottish Water currently going through such a process? Do you want to highlight to us any areas in which, 10 years later, improvements could be made?