Chamber and committees

Sure. You talked about flexibility, which is another key aspect of the shift that we need to make. Last Friday, I attended a Shell event on energy that was specifically for girls, where 18 schools from across the north-east were represented. From speaking to some of the young women there, it is clear that they recognise now that, in relation to the fields that they want to enter, how they work will have to be much more flexible in the future. One lass I spoke with wants to be a mechanical engineer. She recognises that, although she will want to remain a mechanical engineer, there will have to be flexibility in her working life.

It seems, though, that we have some impediments at this time in terms of those flexibilities, including getting the likes of the skills passport. In your opinion, the future workforce recognises that there needs to be flexibility. Is it the case that some of the trade bodies are not accepting that there needs to be that flexibility? If they do not, they could cause a real problem in terms of us reaching our ambitions.

I shall. Thank you, convener.

My very brief supplementary is for Mr Boland, who said that the skills passport is in a wee bit of a difficult phase. As you know, Skills Development Scotland will be on the panel after you. What do you think are the difficulties, and how can they be overcome quickly?

By the sounds of it, there have maybe been too many meetings and not enough action.

Thank you very much, Mr Boland.

There has been quite a lot of talk today about collaboration. We have just touched on communication, and I want to concentrate on collaboration and communication. Let us start with collaboration, because I think that it is in all our interests to ensure that the north-east does not just survive but continues to thrive. I think that most folk from the area would agree that that should be the case.

To get to that point, we all have to collaborate. Ms Harrick, in particular, has talked about the collaboration that exists across the industry. Is there enough collaboration between Governments—the Scottish and the UK Governments—industry, academia and communities for us to get this right?

Let me give you an example. Ms McCarthy said that it sometimes took 12 years to get a major project all the way through from planning to consent. We recognise that we do not have a huge amount of time to make the just transition. What do we need to do by way of collaboration to get the Governments and all the other parties, such as industry and communities, to understand that we need to do this a bit more speedily than we are at the moment and to be a bit more flexible as we move forward? Maybe Ms McGinlay would like to answer first.

Does anyone else want to come in on that?

I will be very brief.

Aberdeen and the north-east have been a global player in the oil and gas industry—top of the tree—and I am sure that we all want the same to be the case in relation to renewables in the future. I could ask lots more questions about planning and consenting, but I wonder whether the witnesses could oblige us by writing to us on how they think that the planning and consenting system could change in order to be beneficial for the just transition.

From a personal point of view, I have found that the best policy and decision making happens when we listen to the voices of those with lived experience as we formulate the policy, which is basically what you are arguing for.

Alasdair Ross, do you share that view? I am sure that you do, but let us hear from you on that front.

There does not necessarily need to be statutory weight, but there have to be parameters that are set by all sides. Communities understand that. They understood it during the “planning for real” process, which took place here many moons ago. They realised that a swimming pool could be on three adjacent streets, for example, and folk also realised that we would need X amount of housing for the school to continue to have a roll of the same size. Therefore, none of the problems is insurmountable.

My final question is about communication. This morning, we heard from a lot of people about various things, and they had questions about aspects of how the just transition fund is working, because the reasoning for certain things in relation to it was never explained to them. Does that communication need to be improved? You can give a yes or no answer to that.