Chamber and committees

The difficulty is that most of the evidence that we are receiving at the moment is anecdotal rather than hard facts from which we can say, “Right, this is what happened then”. Are you going to gather that sort of information?

That means that there have to be hard facts and examples that would help to support that narrative. Is that what you are aiming for?

I want to explore another aspect of the Scottish budget that has been raised. The budget proposes that there will be a further divergence in income tax between Scotland and the rest of the UK, and submissions from the STA and UKHospitality Scotland argue that that is making it harder to recruit and retain talent. Is there any evidence on the extent to which that is impacting on businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector? I will ask Marc Crothall to kick off on that.

In my mind, I never think of jobs in hospitality businesses as being particularly highly paid, certainly at most levels. You mentioned senior management in hotels and so on falling into the category that would be picked up by the increased taxes. What other areas might be affected?

That is not the same thing.

How will you prevent it?

It is contractual commitments that are needed.

The big concern relates to how a decision to intervene is taken. Questions have been asked in the past about what that process is. Do you consider that process to be robust?

Would the intention be to ensure that there were conditions in the contract that prevented a buyer from simply selling off bits of the assets and being left with a rump airport?

It would be helpful if you could do that.

As recently as this morning, we heard that multiple purchasers are interested in Prestwick airport. What is the process for assessing potential buyers? In the past, comments have been made about the danger of asset stripping, because it is possible that the land attached to Prestwick airport could be sold off for development. How are you assessing the approach of potential buyers, how genuine they are and what the benefits would be to the country?