Chamber and committees

This committee considers tourism as part of its remit. I direct members to my entry in the register of members’ interests: I am vice-chair of the National Mining Museum of Scotland, which of course is a superb tourist destination.

Cabinet secretary, you said that you have been in close contact with the UK Government about supply chains in particular. How fruitful or useful have those discussions been? Is there a result that will benefit us?

Leading on from that, I will ask some questions about the updated medium-term financial forecasts from June 2021. I assume that those are where the figure of £7.6 million was extracted from, but other information must have come out of that. What significant information came out of the financials apart from the bare fact that there is a potential surplus? What else did you take from them?

I am sure that others will want to come in but, to expand on what you said, the 2019 report refers to reduction in income from ALFs and from commercial income. That was pre-Covid, so I presume that that income died completely, or near enough, during Covid. In the projections that you have received in the updated medium-term financial forecast, is there any indication of a revival of that source of income?

Does anybody else want to contribute on this question?

Before I throw something in here, I will ask the Auditor General to remind me of something. I recall that, in past sessions, there was an issue with depreciation in colleges and the treatment of that depreciation. There was some peculiarity and I cannot quite remember what it was. I hope that the Auditor General can.

I am the MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh.

We are focusing on a digital future and equipping students with the skills and knowledge that they need in this new world that we are entering. However, I have heard comments from people involved in the digital world that one of the difficulties is that the tutors in colleges and universities are not up to speed with the most advanced technology and have difficulty keeping up. The result is that students do not always leave with the skills that they need to get into that industry. How do the colleges tackle that? How do they keep up to date with a sector that is moving at such speed? Audrey Cumberford might be able to comment on that, just to give Karen Watt a rest.

The Auditor General’s 2019 report highlighted the question of some colleges having difficulties with financial sustainability. Karen Watt has indicated that there has been improvement in that regard and that the SFC is working closely with five colleges. However, the situation has been going on a long time now—the failure to reach sustainability has been going on for as long as I can remember. Leaving aside the overarching funding issue, is there anything holding the colleges back from reaching financial sustainability? What actions should they be taking that they are not taking?

I want to look at how industry is absorbing the increased costs of freight and transportation, and the major components of that issue. Charles Hammond highlighted the exponential price increase for a container coming from the far east, from $2,000 to $20,000. During Covid, we were told that, because of the pandemic, the transport system was discombobulated and all the containers were in the wrong place, and that, while there were all sorts of fallouts from that, the situation would gradually rectify itself over a period. I do not know whether that has happened; I would appreciate your comments on that.

Nevertheless, the UK Department for Transport has indicated that, in comparison with pre-Covid times, volumes of freight to the UK have actually dropped by 10 per cent. Is that due to reduced demand, or because of a lack of ability to get hold of containers and ship to the UK? Perhaps I can get a bit of information on that—Charles Hammond might be able to enlighten us.