Chamber and committees

I am sure that we share your hope for the future.

My second and more specific question brings us back to Gordon MacDonald’s questions about empty properties. At last week’s meeting, we heard about the issues with empty flats above empty shops, with the conflation of different issues affecting both properties and the risk of occupancy failure being doubled or even exponentially increased. Have you seen much of that elsewhere? We were talking about that up in Aberdeenshire last week, but are you aware of the problem and do you have any specific solutions for it?

Thank you—we look forward to that paper.

Your 2021 annual accounts show that just over 80 per cent of the bank’s assets by value are held in investments with no quoted market rate price. Is it just at that point in time that the figure is so high? Obviously, it feeds into how difficult it is to measure your return when there is no market for what you hold. Do you envisage that figure coming down? Is there a target for what the figure should be?

My question is about measurement of labour, particularly of the underrepresented groups that the cabinet secretary referred to earlier. First, may I ask about comments in your opening statement? You talk about seeing now how important delivery is. Why was delivery not seen as important until now? In your answer to Jamie Halcro Johnston, you blame the private sector’s having agency for lack of delivery. What responsibility lies with the Scottish Government for the lack of delivery over the past 14 years?

Thank you. I will move on to the labour question. Unfortunately, our economically inactive population is larger than the UK average. I am not sure why and I do not know whether the cabinet secretary has an opinion, but it is obviously a historical matter. More important is that getting those people into work is particularly difficult, given the diversity of the group—you have mentioned underrepresented groups in the economy. How, therefore, do you intend to do that, and what measurements will you be able to provide for that group? Most importantly, how will you break down that larger group into subgroups, so that we can see what is happening and how things are working or not working?

I have a couple of questions. Mr Watt, let us hope that we do not see you too often regarding individual investments that do not work. You mentioned the sum total. Does the bank have a benchmark in the banking sector that you measure yourself against? At what point would it be reasonable for the Scottish Government to set a target rate of return?

I have three brief questions.

Paragraph 4 in our papers for the meeting says that the Scottish Government is the

“‘appropriate national authority’ to amend the list of specified bodies”

by adding or removing bodies from it. What scrutiny will there be of any wish of the Scottish Government to amend that list? Will that come before a committee or Parliament, or will the decision be made unilaterally by the Government?

I will ask them all together.

Paragraph 12 of our papers says that the Scottish Government

“will ... establish its own structures for oversight”,

and paragraph 14 says that

“A similar register will be established”.

Will the minister give us an insight into the cost of setting up the register and other structures? What will they look like? What work has been done on setting them up? How transparent will the register and structures be? How much do those structures overlap with those in other parts of the UK? We should avoid unnecessary duplication and cost.

Thank you—those are very helpful answers, and I am sure that the convener will come back to you on that last point.

I highlight my entry in the register of members’ interests relating to land registration and my taking part in the voluntary registration process.

I have three points to make, the first of which might be more of an observation. Fellow professionals are very sympathetic to the work of Registers of Scotland and its staff. However, they indicate that a lot of the key performance indicators are based on volume rather than on complexity of cases or on land area. That is hiding, or masking, a larger amount of complex cases coming down the track.

As you said, even though 80 per cent of the land area may have been covered by some of the work that you have done, a lot of the larger more complex areas have not even been started yet. There is a feeling that, when looking at some of the estimates for the plan and the recovery, we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg in terms of complex cases. That is just an observation, which you might want to come back on.

My second point is one that my colleague Jamie Halcro Johnston also raised. I would be grateful for more detail on where some of the backlogs are, and on which areas have better registration coverage than others. We would certainly welcome that information, so perhaps you can let us know about the situation in council areas. Our anecdotal evidence from local authorities is that they have not even begun to set aside staff and resource to meet your objectives, so there may be a disconnect in that regard. Perhaps you could comment on that briefly.

Thirdly, you mentioned that you have a new plan coming out. Given the worrying situation with the backlog, are you able to give the committee further, or more regular, updates, either in writing or in person?

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests in relation to tourism. I have a quick question about support for longer-term recovery. A few weeks ago, I had a good meeting with VisitScotland, which explained that, during Covid, it has been able to pivot its budget to focus more on capital expenditure projects in readiness for the return of tourism. How effective has that been? Has that approach ended? If not, should it end?

I direct that to Leon Thompson first, to be followed by Stephen Montgomery and then Marc Crothall.