Chamber and committees

An issue that came up in the inquiry into a just transition for Grangemouth was whether funding conditionality based on fair work principles should be considered. In a transition that is meant to be just, should there be conditionality? I do not think that there is at the moment, and I know that there are countering views on whether it would be helpful. Do you want to say something about how funds are distributed and decisions are made?

You set out how the chamber would define a just transition Is that understanding shared with other organisations? Do you think that that is a common understanding?

Maggie Chapman also has an interest to declare.

Our next item of business is consideration of a legislative consent memorandum and a supplementary LCM on the United Kingdom Parliament’s Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. The UK Government bill was reintroduced in the House of Commons on 8 November 2023. The bill makes changes to the legal regime for processing personal data and touches on a number of different policy areas.

I welcome Richard Lochhead, Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade. He is joined by Helen Findlay, who is head of information assurance and data protection, and Eilidh McLaughlin, who is head of the digital citizen unit, both in the Scottish Government.

I invite the minister to make a brief statement on the Scottish Government’s position, and then I will move to questions from members.

Thank you, minister. I will now take questions from members.

Have you had any discussions with other devolved Administrations?

The next item of business is agenda item 6, which is our third evidence session in our inquiry into a just transition for the north-east and Moray.

Today’s evidence session comprises two panels. For the first panel, I welcome Mike Duncan, who is north-east Scotland development manager for the Federation of Small Businesses Scotland, and Jordan Jack, who is general secretary of the Campaign for North East Rail. We have received apologies from the managing director of FirstBus, Duncan Cameron, who has had to take part in other urgent business.

We come to our questions. I will go to Mike Duncan first.

Part of our inquiry into a just transition in the north-east is consideration of whether people understand what a just transition is. Is there a shared understanding among your members of what the expectation is? Do you have any views on how we could tell whether we have achieved a just transition? What would the indicators be, particularly for your members?

Do you think that finance or support in some way is the main barrier to businesses making the changes that are required at the moment?

The just transition fund is part of the inquiry; I think that Mike Duncan referred to it earlier. It is the fund that is administered by SNIB. In Aberdeen, we took evidence from local community groups that were applying for the community participatory budgeting side of it. You said that you had looked at the fund. Is it relevant to your members? It tends to be for bigger projects and companies, and then there is the discrete pot of money that is for local communities. We met such groups. That money tended to be accessed more by voluntary groups and charities. Is any of the funding that has been announced designed for or reaching smaller businesses? If not, do you think that it should be?

Do we need definitions or measurements? You have described a fairly common understanding of a just transition, which is that nobody is left behind. What measurements should we use to know whether that is achieved? Rather than defining what they would be, would it be helpful to have a set of measurements?