Chamber and committees

Are you confident that you have brought something new to the sector and that what you have offered in one year and, looking forward, what you will offer is new and different and would not have been there without you?

As David Wilson said, you are not public-facing, but public awareness is important. Is there public awareness of the organisation and an understanding of your role? Do you get contact from individuals that you then have to put to other people? Gordon MacDonald talked about the multiplication of databases. Is there an understanding of what you offer and how you offer it?

A number of the asks will be for funding support, and, I imagine, on regulation. A number of policies impact the tourism and hospitality sectors or the communities that they are in. As has already been mentioned, there has been uncertainty around the DRS and the costs that are involved with it. Concerns have also been raised about the licensing of short-term lets and the tourism levy. We could even consider highly protected marine areas here—in rural communities such as the ones that you and I are from, there is a real concern about that and the wider investment coming in. When you are looking at the asks from those sectors, what consideration are you giving to some of the policies that the Scottish Government has been pursuing over the past few years? Could some of those policies be reconsidered, as has already been done in some cases?

Minister, you talked about Orkney, and I am dialling in from there today. I want to get an idea of how the UK Government is supporting developments in more remote and island communities. You have talked about networks. How is that investment happening?

I will cover a couple of subjects. The first follows on from Graham Simpson’s questions. You will be aware of the issue of the relationship between the Scottish Government and the GFG Alliance and Sanjeev Gupta. Have you met Sanjeev Gupta yet, or do you plan to do so?

That would be helpful. Do you have any concerns at the moment that there is any likelihood that payments will be made to GFG Alliance, or are you anticipating that you will have to make any payments to the company?

If I could just ask a question on that point on rural housing, convener—

That is great. The Scottish Government’s rural and islands housing scheme was extended and has not been fully used—only half of the funds were spent—so I look for an assurance that the minister will review the scheme to determine how it can be made more attractive and easier to use. At the moment, it is clearly not meeting the needs that it should be.

I am trying to remember the figure for the liability. In 2019, it was roughly £570 million. That will have decreased, so do you know what the current liability is?

I will move to another vital area. We know that there is huge pressure on our tourism and hospitality sectors. Cabinet secretary, I am sure that you will have had plenty of representations from those sectors about the pressures that they are facing, and you will have seen the gaps in the high streets and the issues that local areas are facing. A number of eligible businesses in England are receiving a 75 per cent discount on business rates bills this year. That money was available through Barnett consequentials. Has there been any consideration about introducing a similar discount in Scotland?