Chamber and committees

I would like some clarification. Was NRS refused that information, for data protection purposes or whatever, or is it that the data for Scotland does not exist as a separate database?

I want to move on to an issue that the convener has already touched on. We were talking about the substantial impact of Covid-19 on the census programme, but as you have said, challenges to the programme had been identified before the pandemic. Can you give us some detail on those specific challenges and the steps that were taken to address them?

Could it not have recruited someone to take up that position?

The deficiencies that were identified in the programme sound remarkably familiar to those in other ICT programmes—they do not sound new to me. You would have thought, therefore, that they would have been addressed from the beginning instead of coming out in the rehearsal. Are they not the same problems that come up again and again?

I have one last question. The cost of the delay is not inconsiderable, but is Scotland being disadvantaged in any other way by the one-year delay?

That brings me to the Scottish Government’s technology assurance framework. The reviews under that framework are intended to improve the delivery of such programmes. Can you tell us more about the assessments that were made and how the results were considered?

I would like to explore more issues with supply chains, perhaps on a broader basis. I will start with housing and construction. Homes for Scotland has advised that the housing statistics show a 35 per cent drop in the number of housing completions in 2020, with starts down by 27 per cent. Of course, 2020 was a difficult year, and there might have been a particular issue in that year because of Covid. Are there any indications through 2021, from your experience, of the numbers picking up, despite supply-chain issues? I invite Stephen Kemp to comment on that.

This might be an obvious question. We have talked about difficulties in the supply chain and constriction on the supply of essential materials. Why is that happening? Is it just because of Covid? Is it Brexit? Has there been a sudden and exponential increase in demand?

That would imply—I hate to use the word “conspiracy”—concerted action across a wide number of industries, not just the construction industry. Is that correct?

If the international supply chains are impaired, as they seem to be, and pricing is going the way that it is, surely that is a stimulus to local production. Is there any indication of that?