Chamber and committees

Just before I start, I note—I do not mean to sound unfair—that you have come to a committee meeting on the disability employment gap but you cannot tell us the number of disabled people who work in your department and you think that there is data on rural areas and wider afield but you do not have that information to hand. I would have thought that that information would be fairly standard in trying understand the picture across Scotland, and that you would be able to provide it. It would certainly be helpful to get whatever information you have. Others have mentioned data: I wonder whether that shows that we are not getting full data. How can we look at the problems if we do not have that information?

I will following on from what was said about there being a postcode lottery. You represent a seat in the Highlands and Islands and I represent the region. It is harder to deliver services in rural areas and it is harder to access services in rural areas. The issue goes wider than just the services themselves; it involves transport, connectivity and information technology, as others have said. How do you liaise with others—such as the transport minister or those who are responsible for digital—to ensure that the work that you have responsibility for is deliverable through others’ areas of responsibility?

You are the minister, so I would have thought that you might have that information, but I will move on.

We know from the budget that there was a £53 million cut to employability funding. Several issues have been raised about the short timescales to access funding. What impact, given the cut, do you think that will have on the sector and the schemes that have been delivered, and on the wider issue of the employability gap?

I will go back to the point that Colin Smyth made. You suggested that you would look into individual cases that were mentioned because you are not aware of them. However, surely you are aware that the sector has raised issues about the length of funding parcels, because they are looking for funder for longer than a year. What on-going discussions are you having with the sector on that?

Emma?

Okay. I am conscious of the time, so I will very quickly ask a more general question. Obviously, you are working with many people at the moment. Can you estimate how much need for support there is, compared with how much you are able to deliver?

Good morning, and thank you very much. There is some really interesting stuff coming out today, and some of the areas that I was going to ask you about have already been covered.

I represent the Highlands and Islands, which is obviously a large area with remote rural populations. You have talked about postcode lotteries and about aftercare and how important it is. I can imagine people who live in very rural communities having to travel, and I wonder whether there are other barriers. What are the particular barriers that people in remote rural communities face? How can we address them?

On what you were saying previously, I imagine that all the parts have to be right, otherwise the whole system breaks down.

I will go back to funding and come to Emma Congreve. Before I was an MSP, we were talking about multiyear funding and allowing organisations such as yours to make decisions that would have consistency over a number of years. Has there been any improvement in that respect? Is the situation the same or is it getting worse? What is the impact of that not quite hand-to-mouth, but short-term, funding?

I have a couple of short questions. We want to attract people to set up businesses in Scotland and we want to attract entrepreneurship. What analysis or advice have you had concerning the potential impact of the fact that an individual who sets up a business in Scotland is likely to pay a higher rate of income tax than they would pay in other parts of the United Kingdom?

Have you taken any advice, or has there been any input, from the chief entrepreneur on that subject?

When will the minutes for the December meeting be available?