Chamber and committees

Good morning to the committee and witnesses. I am sorry that I am not able to be with you in person today. I hope that you can hear me okay—it is blowing a bit of a hoolie here at the moment, so I apologise if I am slightly disrupted.

I want to highlight what Marie Hendry said about parity of esteem. I support that approach. As a former spokesman on skills for my party and convener of the cross-party group on skills, I think that it is vital. Support for small and medium-sized enterprises is also important, and we need to do more to encourage and support them to get involved.

The topic of my first question has been covered, but I want to get confirmation of something from Chris Brodie. Chris, perhaps you can remind us of the number of current vacancies across Scotland in comparison with the number of people who are economically inactive. What you said was really interesting. Are we doing enough to get those who are economically inactive back into work, whether by supporting them or through other ways of encouraging them? To use a crude term, it is about the balance between the carrot and the stick. What more could we be doing right now?

Thank you.

Some interesting points have been made. I have a few questions, on the back of them. I will go first to Professor Simms, then to Paul Hunter.

The vote to leave the European Union was in 2016, and although I understand the argument that there was uncertainty about what the exact deal would be, there has been time to prepare. Looking at the Scottish context, do you think that the Scottish Government, the agencies and the industries and sectors have done enough, or been proactive enough, in considering what the impact of leaving the EU might be, and what we needed to do to ensure that the people and the supply chain were in place?

We also know that there is, for small businesses, an issue with recruitment and reliance on EU workers. The importance of stakeholder engagement has come up repeatedly. Is that harder for the small business sector, even with representatives such as the Federation of Small Businesses and others, which do great work? Is that a particular issue, and how do we get over it in order to hear the voice of small businesses?

It always comes back to broadband for rural regions, does it not? Thank you very much.

I am a Highlands and Islands MSP, so many of the businesses that I represent are in rural areas. What do you think is the impact of rurality on the transition to net zero? What more can be done? Do you feel that your organisations can deliver support in rural areas?

The Federation of Small Businesses told the committee:

“I am not sure that businesses can be in survival mode and also make the transition to substantial decarbonisation. I just do not think that they can do it, and if they can ... they will need extensive public support.”—[Official Report, Economy and Fair Work Committee, 1 September 2021; c 32.]

Obviously, we have had a difficult last couple of years with all that has gone on with the pandemic. That might have had no impact on your plans for decarbonisation or it might have made those plans more of a priority. How has the pandemic impacted on your plans for decarbonisation?

A Citizens Advice Scotland report earlier this year found that 52 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises have not taken any action to decarbonise. Obviously, all the panellists today are very passionate about and committed to decarbonisation, but many are not as advanced as you are. There are a number of questions. We have talked briefly about barriers to decarbonisation. Fairly substantial amounts of resources and time will be required to look at the support available, to get advice and to take projects through. For businesses that are smaller than those that you represent, that could have a real impact on the desire to decarbonise. How much personal resource have you had to put into it? Is the information and support that is presented to you available in an easy way? Is there a one-stop shop that provides UK and Scottish Government support and advice and, if not, would that be helpful?

This question is for Fraser Sime, because of the nature of the work of the Bank of Scotland. A number of banks have closed branches in rural areas and across the Highlands and Islands. Do you think that the closures have had an impact, particularly in terms of the ability to deliver face-to-face and one-to-one services?

I put the same question about supporting rural businesses to David Ovens and then to Simon Crichton.

It is encouraging to hear such enthusiastic people talk about the issue. Perhaps we should have had some complete cynics as well, to give a fuller idea of some of the barriers.