Chamber and committees

Thank you very much indeed. I will start by looking at some of the contextual factors that you set out in your opening statement and in the slides that you sent us. You have identified rising demand for public services at a time of tight finances and deepening inequalities, not least because of the so-called cost of living crisis. You have spoken about post-pandemic recovery, which is still a live issue for many parts of the public sector, and you have mentioned climate change and the need for longer-term reform. How well are the Government and public bodies responding and rising to those challenges?

That was a helpful illustration. We might get into even more of the detail of that later.

I was looking back at the session that we held last year on your work programme. That session started with a discussion about the industrial intervention framework and Ferguson Marine. I notice that ferries do not appear in your outline work programme. About this time last year, we produced a report in which we made some recommendations about the need to have a review, on the contract’s completion, to find out what had happened, what went wrong, what lessons can be learned and so on. At that point, I think that you expected to carry out that work, but it is not mentioned in your work programme. Can you update us on that?

That is helpful. I will move things along and invite Colin Beattie to put some questions to you.

The second item on our agenda is further consideration of the Auditor General for Scotland’s report on decarbonising heat in homes.

From the Scottish Government, I am pleased to welcome the director general net zero, Roy Brannen; Kersti Berge, director, energy and climate change; Catherine Williams, deputy director for heat in buildings delivery; and Sue Kearns, deputy director for heat in buildings policy. We have some questions to put to you. Before I get to those, I invite you to make a short opening statement, director general.

Thank you very much indeed, Mr Brannen. What I inferred from what you have just told us, but want to check for the record, is that you accept the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report. Can you confirm that?

You have said a couple of times that this is the point that we have now reached. I remind you of what that point looks like. The target was that 1 million out of the 2.5 million homes in Scotland would be converted by 2030, but, as I read the Audit Scotland report, the figure is not 1 million out of 2.5 million; it is 26,000 out of 2.5 million, which is about 1 per cent.

I reflect again that 6,000 heat pumps out of 2.5 million households is way less than 1 per cent, isn’t it?

The deputy convener, Jamie Greene, has some questions.

We have a final suite of questions, which will be asked by Graham Simpson.

Okay. You will see—and I will direct this question to Mr Jones, too—that this is fomenting a view, certainly among PCS members, that GEOAmey should not be part of the equation at all.