Chamber and committees

Anything that was due for publication in the next six weeks will, unfortunately, probably be delayed beyond then because, as a result of purdah, the Government is no longer permitted to publish any strategies. Whether that is a concern or otherwise, that will be a challenge. We might come on to, for example, the green industrial strategy and the energy strategy, which will probably also be affected.

To be clear, having an NSET refresh does not mean rewriting it or adding to it, because I still stand by what was published. It is a 10-year strategy. However, there is an opportunity to consider what we have delivered already, what else we can still deliver, and what perhaps needs to be further accelerated.

My own objectives for my role mean that I am keen to accelerate work in four areas, all of which are contained within NSET. Those are attracting private investment in the green industries; ensuring that we have the right infrastructure in place—for example, for housing; focusing on employability, particularly for those who are furthest from the job market; and looking at how we can make business as straightforward as possible.

All those areas are contained within NSET. I propose that we publish something that is consistent with the strategy that was published two years ago, but that looks at how our economy has changed and where we might need greater focus in the document. However, it is a 10-year strategy, and it should be treated as a long-term strategy.

I can ask Aidan Grisewood to contribute on that. We currently report on progress annually. That gives a sense of how things compare to some of the benchmarks in the national strategy. Do you want to speak more about that, Aidan?

Absolutely. We are two years in. You have to understand what drives productivity growth. A lot of it is in the realm of business and public sector reinvestment. We have just come through two years of quite stubborn inflation, with costs of living and high energy prices particularly affecting business. By all accounts, it has been an extremely challenging time for business, and our public finances have been extremely constrained, but the aims in NSET still stand, and the work that we are doing to enable business to invest continues.

The first announcement that I made last week—perhaps this goes back to Murdo Fraser’s question about what is different—was £5 million for new and growing businesses to invest. Technology, systems and people will drive our productivity.

The Government’s overall budget is usually about £50 billion, give or take—

I have already said that I have a lot of respect for Audit Scotland and the work that it does. The approach that we take in every budget is to prioritise the Government’s aims and objectives using the limited funds that we have. Out of the overall budget of £50 billion to £55 billion, give or take, we do our level best to invest in the NHS and so on. It is incredibly and quite remarkably short-sighted of Colin Smyth to ask for a specific budget line, as though the technological work that is going on in our NHS has nothing to do with the economy.

They have been doing it in a number of different ways. I am not going to shy away from the fact that our budget position is extremely challenging; I will continue to come back to that theme.

The agencies can prioritise in a number of ways. The first, which I have already talked about, is being clear about what they are trying to achieve. They cannot do everything. The Government wants to work with them according to the objectives that have been set out in NSET. That is the blueprint, and it is clear about prioritising entrepreneurship and innovation, and attracting inward investment, particularly into the green industries. That is clear and it is happening.

The second part is about working better together. Various parts of the public sector are interested in economic prosperity and growth. There are excellent examples of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise working together, or of them working closely with local authorities, particularly on planning and consenting. They also work closely with the Scottish Government.

We need a more joined-up approach. During the past few years, I have often heard that there is not enough working together in the public sector, or that there is not enough prioritisation. That has changed. People express frustration at having to jump through lots of hoops, but the feedback that I am getting is that things are much simpler and more straightforward.

Although I do not shy away from the budget challenges, I commend the work that has emerged from NSET and from the need to work more closely with other organisations.

The principle is sound. Prestwick is operating profitably. The accounts—the most recent were published in November—prove that. However, ministers’ objective has always been to return the airport to private ownership when the circumstances are right. In addition, the Government has very clear aspirations for it to continue to be part of the local and national economy, because it is a strategic asset. Bids need to be reviewed on that basis as well as on a purely financial basis.

The Government does not run airports in the way that it does other strategic assets that we have acquired for a purpose. When we have achieved our purpose of protecting them and, as in this case, returning them to profitability, the Government should look to find a commercial airport operator that can run them, which will allow the Government to continue to focus on its objectives. However, that will not be to the disadvantage of our aim of ensuring that the airport continues to be part of the local economy.

A last point that is worth making is that the fact that it continues to be of interest to bidders illustrates its value. We should have high ambitions for what Prestwick airport can do in the local economy.

With regard to the decisions that VisitScotland has taken, I can provide you with the specific detail on footfall, but I am afraid that I do not have it with me. Visitors are approaching tourism in a completely different way—there has been a total change in behaviour. Although the tourism market has pretty much recovered and the figures that we saw in 2019 have been exceeded, people are choosing to engage in different ways. They are far more likely to use those alternative methods than they are to go into a tourist information centre.

Interestingly, I have seen examples—in my own constituency, no less—of communities stepping into that role and making a huge success of it. Drumnadrochit took over the visitor information centre a couple of years ago, and it has never been busier. The community is able to raise money from that and to reinvest it in the community. Opportunities can be looked at, but I am happy to supply the committee with the specific figures that you want on the VisitScotland decision.

It is absolutely essential. I will start with a positive, and then talk about where we need to go further.

The positive is that, when inward investors make choices about where to invest—to create 300-plus jobs in the Highlands, for example—or when a business chooses where to locate in order to grow, skills and talent are pretty much up there as one of that business’s number 1 considerations, and we already have a lot of the skills and talent that are needed.

However, the economy is changing at such a pace, and we need to keep up with it. I have always been very interested in the teaching of computing science in our schools. When it comes to the tech industry, what we find is that it is always looking for young people. I believe that Mark Logan, our chief entrepreneur, is coming before the committee today to speak specifically about computing science, and he might have more to say about the progress that is being made in and around that. Exciting progress has been made in embedding computing science and, of course, closing the gender gap. If we could get as many girls as boys studying computing science, that in itself would be transformational, and that will require us to work with a lot of the brilliant individuals and organisations that are currently working in our schools to make computing science of interest and which are helping young people carry that interest through school.

I think that that covers some of the work that is being done. We could speak more broadly about wider skills, particularly in engineering and green industry. There is a balance to be struck in that respect; we want opportunities for our young people who are coming through, but we also have a big problem with depopulation, particularly in our coastal and rural areas. It is also a question of how we attract people with the skills into the country.

Last week, I visited the National Robotarium at Heriot-Watt University and met representatives of five tech businesses working in decarbonisation and in waste and recycling. They are all international citizens who have chosen to locate in Scotland, and each one of them said that the reason for doing so was access to skills.