Chamber and committees

Other indicators that you wanted action on include investment in active labour market policies, more conditionality in relation to zero-hours contracts, the gender pay gap, collective bargaining and so on. How much are the Scottish Government’s hands tied by the fact that employment law is reserved?

Good morning. I want to ask a couple of questions, first about the heat map that you produced.

Helen Martin mentioned that, of the fair work 45 indicators, 19 had improved and 10 had worsened. In the eight comparable countries, was there similar movement in the number of improvements and worsening positions, or were their indicators pretty stable? Were there any underlying common reasons for any movement?

Exactly.

You do not have the trends for the comparable countries.

Okay. That is interesting, though, and might make my second question a bit awkward.

On the heat map you indicate Scotland’s positive performance in three areas. It is in second place for lower youth employment rate, second place for respect for workers in work ill-health, and first place for higher levels of permanent employment. Why is Scotland doing so well in those areas but not in others?

The only interest that I have to declare is that my wife is a district nurse with NHS Lothian.

Al Denholm, you have spoken a lot about many of the projects being multiyear. If you are to honour the commitments that you have given to those companies for their investment profile, what impact will that have on new projects and on the leverage that you have to get private capital to invest in a project?

Absolutely.

I will ask a similar question of Al Denholm. You said earlier that your investment income exceeded operational expenses by roughly £3 million. You had a big loss from Circularity Scotland, however, and we know the reasons for that. How would you be able to cope with losses such as that in the future and has your risk appetite changed in any way?

Before I ask my questions, I thank the Scottish National Investment Bank for the investment in Lost Shore, Scotland’s only surf resort, which will open in my constituency in a few weeks, I hope—not that I will be on the water. [Laughter.]

I want to ask about financial transactions funding. The Scottish Government’s overall financial transaction funding has been cut by 62 per cent, or around £350 million, compared to 2002-23. We know that the Scottish Government has virtually no borrowing powers, so it is in a bit of a straitjacket. We have seen financial transactions funding being cut year on year to its current low level. If it continues to be cut, what impact will that have on your organisations?