Chamber and committees

How feasible would it be to build into the process some certainty that an asset stripper could not simply buy the airport?

Thank you for that.

The committee has heard that the regulatory environment has to be right to support the development of a hydrogen industry in Grangemouth and, indeed, across the UK, including regulation of the transportation of hydrogen. I have two questions about that. First, what is the UK Government doing to ensure that the Scottish Government and UK Government’s ambitious targets for hydrogen activity are supported? Secondly, has the minister had any discussions with the industry about the potential for hydrogen production at Grangemouth?

Thank you for that. To be absolutely clear, does that mean that there have been no substantive discussions about hydrogen production or the potential for it at Grangemouth?

On that particular point, you said “each college”. Does that mean that there is no common approach and that there could be differences in the formula, for want of a better word, that colleges use to determine which courses to retain?

There must be a practical situation whereby colleges’ financial position is going to improve as a result of the changes. That is the purpose of the changes—to give the colleges flexibility and the ability to improve their situation. You must have done a projection as to what the changes will achieve.

Thank you, convener.

I would like to cover a couple of topics, one of which is potential staff reductions, which my colleague Graham Simpson mentioned. It is clear that staff are a college’s biggest expense. That is not a surprise, given the nature of the business that colleges are in. However, some colleges know that they need to make—or potentially need to make—significant staffing reductions. Some of those are fairly extreme.

I have a couple of questions to ask. I do not know whether you will have an answer to the first one.

First, part of the increase in staff costs is the result of the cost of living negotiations with the union. Those costs are not insignificant. However, there is also the fixed element of staff increments every year. Unless a person is at the top of their grade, they will receive a certain increment each year. I do not know how much that would be—typically, the figure that I have seen elsewhere is 3 or 5 per cent. What element of the increase in staff costs are the fixed costs that come every year? I realise that there will be a slight difference each year, but roughly what proportion is that increase in comparison with the cost of living increases?

Secondly, I think that trying to maintain a quality curriculum has already been mentioned. Given the sheer depth of some of the potential staff cuts, there will still be an impact on the curriculum even if they are mitigated to an extent. How will you prioritise which part of the curriculum to retain and which part to cease? That is quite a difficult thing to ask. I do not know who wants to come in on that.

I would have thought that understanding the level of fixed commitment every year would be quite an important element in terms of increases in staff costs.

I will come back to the first question to which you responded. On the first portion of your answer, it is quite logical for colleges to continually review their courses and what they offer to the market. However, we are talking about something quite different here—we are talking about a forced reduction in the number of courses that are offered. Do colleges raise the bar so that there is a change in the criteria under which a course might be offered, with the result that not enough people apply for it? Instead of having X number of people applying, which would have been fine previously, the bar is raised and only the more popular courses are offered. Gradually, we will see shrinkage through that.

I will move on to a slightly different aspect. The SFC has introduced a new funding distribution model and new guidance, which are supposed to give colleges better flexibility and greater opportunity to respond to local needs. I believe that the Scottish Government is looking at the possibility of further changes in college funding arrangements. Perhaps you can summarise where you are on that at the moment. Are the Scottish Government and the SFC giving colleges enough clarity on their priorities within the funding that is available to them?