Chamber and committees

Does Professor Fothergill want to come in?

Thank you very much. If no one else wants to come in on that, that is me done, convener.

In general terms, is there enough support in place to identify and encourage UK companies to use local supply chains? How much collaboration is there between industry, academics and public agencies to establish local supply chains?

I am sure that one of my colleagues will pick up the procurement issue.

Iain Bomphray, do you have a view on the amount of collaboration and support that exists to exploit local supply chains?

I have a specific question and a couple of general questions. Part of the focus of our inquiry is the construction sector. Last week, we heard from witnesses that the number of sawmills in Scotland has reduced substantially since the 1970s, yet 70 per cent of the softwoods that are harvested in the UK come from Scotland. We also have a situation in which most of the timber that is used in construction is imported.

What opportunities are there to increase the use of wood products in Scotland? What steps do we need to take to exploit them, given the difficulties of importing from the European Union and the fact that timber prices have increased substantially in recent months?

I have three quick questions to ask. The construction industry imports around £16 billion-worth of products, of which £10 billion-worth come from the European Union. Is the construction sector ready for the changes to customs declarations that will take place from January, and what impact will that have on the supply chain?

We talked about centralisation in many manufacturing plants—brickworks, sawmills or roof tiles producers. If a new supplier were to be set up in Scotland that would fill some of the gaps, how would we protect it in the future from being taken over and centralised again and a monopoly being created?

We have talked about innovation. Safety checks are part of any new product. We are in the process of moving away from the European CE mark to the UK conformity assessed mark. Do we have sufficient numbers of product testing houses in the UK to speed up that process if we are going to look at alternative products?

We have talked a lot this morning about staff shortages, whether of HGV drivers or warehousemen. We have also previously heard about shortages of vets, hygiene inspectors, butchers and farm workers, produce being out of stock, short deliveries and longer lead times. We have talked about all those problems. What does the Scottish or UK Government need to do in order to address those problems?

Colin Smith said that regional development hubs might be able to address some of the challenges. Are there any other bottlenecks in Scotland’s supply chain infrastructure that need to be addressed?