Chamber and committees

My question is to seek clarification on the remit of SDS. Mairi Spowage touched on the care service. One of the biggest shortages is of nearly 5,000 nurses across Scotland, with nearly 10 per cent of that shortage being in NHS Grampian. With your regional and sectoral hats on, what is the remit of SDS in tackling that particular shortage? If you do not have a direct role, what interaction do you have with bodies that do, in order to make sure that you are not competing and that there is joined-up thinking?

My second question is for Nora Senior and is about furlough coming to an end. Although I know that the question has been answered to some extent already, a lot of the answers have been hypothetical—about what might happen or what is expected. However, has any work or mapping—as, I think, it has been referred to—been done in relation to those who are currently on furlough and who will be leaving it at the end of the month, or is it the case that we simply have to wait and see what happens when the next unemployment figures turn up?

I alert members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as an employer across a number of sectors.

My first question was for Chris Brodie; I do not know whether he is back.

My final question is for Mairi Spowage and is about labour shortages, which I hope does not stray too much from skills shortages. The matter has been touched on already; Mairi has mentioned productivity. We have spoken before about how cheap imported labour has prevented or suppressed wage increases, and about how it has been a substitute for investment in automation. It has certainly been a long time—it seems that it was almost pre-Covid—since we saw prototypes of robots picking raspberries. What have you seen in the past year in relation to investment in automation to address some of the problems?

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests. I declare that I have an interest as an owner and manager of property, including agricultural, residential and commercial lettings, recreational and sporting usage and forestry. I am also a shareholder in a construction, development and house-building group and a renewable energy company, and I hold remunerated positions in companies related to those areas.