Chamber and committees

Does the badging of something as “new” often create a scenario in which a bureaucracy grows and other people come into play?

Thank you, convener.

You have touched on award letters and letters of comfort and, indeed, on parliamentary budgeting processes, which often have a major impact on some of those letters. You probably heard me ask the previous panel about what the chancellor should do when she gets to her feet on 30 October, but what does the chancellor need to do about multiyear funding, fair pay and the other issues that we have talked about today?

Good morning. We have covered a lot of ground today: multiyear funding, flexible funding, inflation adjustments, the real living wage—the list goes on. However, over a number of years, the austerity agenda has continued. The Chancellor of the Exchequer will get to her feet on 30 October to deliver her first budget. What would your message to her be?

That is a good steer. You said that that is within directorates.

I have a question for Rachel Cackett about mental wellbeing and social care. The adult mental health and wellbeing fund is distributed by TSIs. That is different from how we funded the children’s equivalent, which was done through local authorities. Is that confusing for the third sector? Would the sector like some uniformity in such processes, for example?

As a new organisation.

You just hit upon the point about small-scale investment. Earlier, Mr Black said that sometimes the SMEs find it more difficult to access traditional funding from traditional banks. Do you think that, if the chancellor reinvigorated the financial transactions budget, it would give you guys the opportunity to invest in some of those SMEs that are not, as you have said, able to access such funding? If that were possible, would it bring or lever in more private money?

Ms Morrison-Ross, could you respond?

Thank you. Mr Black?

Could you provide the committee with some examples of that reach and of the bang for the buck, which we are all interested in? We should, of course, protect commercial confidentiality, but I would be really interested in finding out the reach and the bang for the buck.

I want to take the witnesses back a little bit. Both Ms Morrison-Ross and Mr Black said that there were real difficulties with the removal of financial transactions—in other words, loan money.

You will be well aware that the Scottish Government faced a hefty 62 per cent cut to financial transactions. My question is for both of you. With regard to ensuring that there is growth, do you think that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in her forthcoming budget, should re-introduce those financial transactions—the loan budgets—to help you guys to help us, and to help her, to achieve the economic growth that we all want? Perhaps Mr Black can start.

We can see on our televisions, our iPads and the various other devices that we use that some countries have a huge marketing budget. Just over the past few days, if you watched the news you would have seen a huge effort by Turkey, Kazakhstan—which features very highly on international stations at the moment—and Saudi Arabia. Obviously they have megabucks behind them that VisitScotland does not have.

You talked earlier, Ms Miller, about activity that will make a difference—you mentioned YouTube and TikTok. There are also lots of adverts in online computer gaming, particularly the so-called free gaming, which is normally aimed at—it is naughty but I will say it anyway—an older audience. Are we doing that kind of thing? How do we ensure that such activity makes a difference because it seeks folk with a connection to Scotland, or who feel that they have a connection to Scotland?