Chamber and committees

Have there been discussions about the need to find new ways of generating revenue for the scheme?

Is that something else that is being looked at?

During this meeting, your colleagues have said that they will provide further information. We talked about period 1, and you said that four months of information are available. Was that not available when the information was requested for this meeting?

Good morning to the minister and her colleagues. I am fairly new to this committee and, although this is not the first time that I have seen this proposal, I have not looked at it in this depth of detail and was not here for the previous discussions.

Michael Marra has rightly said that, for all the value that this brings, it still has to be paid for. I am not sure of the exact wording that you used, but I think that you hinted at or suggested other ways of generating revenue. Does that mean having to introduce new taxes, increase taxes, bring in new fees or whatever to pay for taking this forward, if the costs are higher than expected?

You have said that, for the chain that you represent, Glasgow is actually okay at the moment, but for other areas it will be different.

Okay.

My last question was on the potential VAT liability, about which concerns were raised. Can you give us an update on where that stands at the moment?

That figure was originally estimated to be around £32 million; is that correct?

You also talked about infrastructure. We have seen uncertainty about the A9 and it has been a disastrous summer for a lot of island communities because of the ferries. Even some of the mainland Highland ferries, such as the Corran ferry, have been out. I met people on the Ardnamurchan peninsula who are wondering whether they can keep their businesses going. How do you get the message across to Government at ministerial level—in order to influence budget decisions—that infrastructure, and particularly transport infrastructure, is vital?

Michael Marra rightly suggested that a number of areas have not been fully considered in the bill. The original financial memorandum estimated the costs of the bill over the five years between 2022-23 and 2026-27 as being between £644 million and £1,261 million. Are those still the estimates, or are the figures considerably higher?

I get the points that have been made, but you would have to go to people in the Highlands and Islands and say to them that more power needs to be in Edinburgh. Nobody wants to make that argument. In fact, in the Highlands, Inverness is seen as the great collector of power. It is really difficult to strike the balance.

I want to come back to Rachel Cook’s point about the rural aspect. We have talked about business confidence being low across the UK, but your focus was on that being the case in Scotland. I wonder whether there are regional differences, as well.

I represent the Highlands and Islands. Small businesses are absolutely vital—they are the lifeblood of communities across the region. Is there a difference between business confidence there and that in other parts of Scotland?