Chamber and committees

Can you say anything about how we can have a sustainable recovery in the medium to long term in relation to phase 2?

My questions are for Charles Hammond from Forth Ports. I want to ask you about an article on the Forth Ports website dated June 2020, when you called on the UK Government to have a national resilience strategy. In that article, you said:

“We need a long-term strategy underpinned by in-depth analysis that examines a range of weaknesses, from the frailties of our supply chains, future skills shortages to the residual capability required to maintain critical supplies”.

What has changed in the past 15 months to address these issues, which you highlighted last year? What would be the role of Scotland’s ports in dealing with the frailties of our supply chains?

You rightly said that Grangemouth carries a large proportion of Scotland’s GDP through its port—I think that it is about 30 per cent. In addition to that, about 70 per cent of Scotland’s population lives within 1 hour of Grangemouth. When the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee visited Grangemouth in 2015—that was the last time we considered the issue—we were concerned that investment in port infrastructure lagged far behind that in continental Europe in relation to the handling of containers.

Will you say a wee bit more about the level of investment that you have put into Grangemouth in recent years, given the billion pounds that you have invested in Tilbury in the past eight years?

My final question is about Leith. Evidence in previous parliamentary sessions has suggested that a lack of capacity in Scotland has contributed to holding back the development of a Scottish supply chain in renewable energy, particularly in relation to onshore and offshore wind. Does the proposed development at Leith address the capacity issue, or do other gaps remain?

No—I am fine, thank you.

Does anyone else want to come in on that?

I apologise if my link breaks up; I have been having problems this morning.

I refer to the point that we have just spoken about and to the Scottish employer skills survey. The numbers suggest that, between 2011 and 2017, the number of employers that provided training to their staff over the previous 12 months moved from 73 per cent to 71 per cent. We then had a major drop in 2020 to 59 per cent. Did Covid-19 create that blip in training? If it was not Covid, what was it? Over many surveys, the number has consistently bounced around the 70 per cent mark. Is there an underlying reason for the drop in 2020? I will ask Mairi Spowage that question, as she has not spoken yet.

As has been highlighted, a lot of businesses had to move online in order to survive. We already knew that 150,000 information technology job vacancies existed in Scotland, the United Kingdom and the European Union and had done so for a long number of years. Has Covid had any other impact on the labour market that we have not yet touched on?

The survey says that the reasons for not providing training—[Inaudible.]—employers said that all staff are fully proficient with no need for training and 22 per cent said that Covid-19 meant that planned training did not happen. The drop-off could be a temporary blip. Could Chris Brodie and Nora Senior comment?

Looking at some specifics, Barry, we have seen an increase in minimum-carriage-paid orders and so on, as well as signed health certificates. Is there anything in the Scottish Government’s remit that we can do to open up the export market?