Chamber and committees

We have touched on finance a couple of times this morning. You quite rightly pointed out that owner-occupiers should contribute something. In Wester Hailes in my constituency, 180 blocks are currently being retrofitted with external cladding as part of an improvement to the area. However, home owners, many of whom are retired, are being asked for between £40,000 and £60,000, which is a substantial element of the value of the property. The only option that they are being given is to sell the property back to the council. I was interested in the minutes of your June meeting, which say:

“There was discussion on ‘who pays’ for retrofit work, particularly those ineligible for Warmworks support at present due to benefit criteria. It was suggested government should look at other countries for solutions, such as Germany and Italy who both operate effective incentive schemes.”

Will you expand on that?

You touched on the gender pay gap and the living wage. How does Scotland compare with the rest of the UK when it comes to that gap and the number of living wage employers?

In the Fair Work Convention’s report, “Fair Work in Scotland”, which was published December 2020, you highlighted a number of sectors that were not performing well against the fair work indicators. We have already touched on the issue of the pandemic, but what impact has it had on those sectors? I know that you have carried out inquiries into two or three of them.

You have touched on the lack of sick pay, on low pay and on precarious working, all of which relate to employment law and trade union legislation. How much of a barrier to achieving fair work nation status for Scotland is the fact that those things are reserved to Westminster?

Okay. Thanks very much.

Given that the responses to all the approaches to the UK Government that not only the Scottish Government but the Welsh and Northern Irish Governments have made in an effort to address labour shortages in the three countries have been less than helpful, what can Scotland do to address those issues? There was talk of establishing a migration service for Scotland. What can we do, given that the matter is reserved?

Good morning. I want to continue the discussion that you have just started about immigration. In your July letter to the committee, you highlighted that

“the ending of freedom of movement is projected to result in a ... reduction in our working age population”

of up to 5 per cent. You went on to say that the

“UK immigration system is unresponsive to labour market requirements.”

Given that there have been a number of changes in Government since that letter was written, what discussions have taken place with UK ministers regarding devolving immigration, as happens in other countries, or about amending the Scottish shortage occupation list?

In your letter to the committee, you highlighted that the three devolved Governments—the Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish Governments—wrote a joint letter to the UK Government that called for the establishment of a joint task force on labour market shortages. How is that progressing? Have UK Government ministers engaged on that subject?

I want to pick up on Paul Sheerin’s earlier point about the loss of free movement, because I am keen to understand its impact on each of your sectors.

My background is that, before I was elected, I was in public transport. A large proportion of drivers were European Union nationals, but clearly that situation has changed, because a lot of them went back home after Brexit or during the pandemic. I am keen to understand roughly the proportion of EU nationals in each of your sectors and how that proportion has changed in recent years.

Would you support the introduction of a devolved immigration system, as has happened in other countries, so that we can plug the gaps? As Paul Sheerin has said, if we do not have a workforce, we cannot fulfil the order book. How do we close that circle? We are at full employment in Scotland. When I studied economics many years ago, and unemployment rate of 4 per cent was considered to be full employment, and we are at 3.3 per cent. Can you therefore say a wee bit about EU nationals?

What is the level of vacancies for joiners and bricklayers in your sector just now?