Chamber and committees

That is grand. Thank you.

Earlier, you talked about the importance of the supply chain. In the oil and gas supply chain, the knowledge is immense. People within that supply chain recognise that there needs to be change and that they will have to transition but, as things currently stand, they see that as being difficult because they do not have the comfort that they need about some of the regulatory changes that are required, which we have touched on.

How can we get the UK Government to work with us and listen to industry to ensure that we secure jobs for the future and that we do not end up in a situation where jobs dry up and people go elsewhere, when we will need them in order to move forward with the green economy that we want?

Inward investment is absolutely important, but we already have companies here with a huge amount of knowledge and companies that are developing new products to make the change. Are we ensuring that we are backing them to the hilt as well as relying on inward investment? If Richard Rollison wants to pick up on that, I would be grateful.

That is grand and a very good thing. It is not just about exporting knowledge overseas; it is about the possibility of manufacturing new products, which is extremely important for our green industrial future. As we move forward, I would be grateful if the committee could be updated on how we are dealing with domestic investment and ensuring that we make the very most of the knowledge and the products that people are coming up with here.

Good morning, Deputy First Minister. Lorna Slater mentioned the green industrial strategy and its consistency of purpose with NSET. I want to take that a little bit further and ask how it melds with the hydrogen action plan and the forthcoming energy strategy.

Beyond that, I would like your opinions on how all that fits or does not fit with UK strategies. You said that you are focused on actions. Are certain elements that are not within our control holding up actions?

What is your opinion on whether the co-operation that we require is as good as it should be? Let us take the example of hydrogen and the hydrogen action plan. There have been lots of discussions around this table and elsewhere about the possibilities for hydrogen. We see some of the possibilities in my neck of the woods, with the Aberdeen hydrogen project, which has been on the go for quite a long time now. We are told that some of the difficulties with that come from UK regulation on transportation and storage of hydrogen. How much are you doing to persuade the UK Government to make the moves to get this right, in order to allow the investment that our future requires?

You have talked a fair bit about having an effective voice and, in terms of the fair work agenda, that is spoken about a great deal. Mainly we talk about that from a trade union and worker perspective, but earlier you talked about the best models of ways in which to bring together workers, unions, employers and the Government, and gave Denmark as an example of somewhere where that works well. Do we have a job of work to do with many employers here to try to get them to see sectoral bargaining as a positive rather than a negative?

Good morning. There has been a lot of talk today about pay, and rightly so. The survey looks a lot at pay and associated scenarios such as health and safety and supporting families, including with childcare. However, there is not so much emphasis on conditions and things that are associated with pay. Has any work been done on maternity pay or sick pay—or the lack of those, in some cases—to see how we compare with other countries, including Denmark, which, as you rightly say, works with a social market economy rather than a liberal market economy?

We would probably agree that fair work is more than just fair pay and that the conditions are extremely important, particularly for women. You said that we have been creative with the powers that we have in Scotland. Do legislation and regulation in these areas need to be toughened up to ensure that women are treated fairly when it comes to maternity pay, that the same applies to men with paternity pay and that folk have equal access to decent sick pay?

I have one final question, which is about the disability pay gap and the measures around that across the comparator countries. Is there a breakdown of disability that takes account of neurodiverse folk? Do we have separate figures concerning neurodivergence? If not, should we think about having that?