Chamber and committees

You said that the agencies have had to do things differently. How much are you having to focus on supporting businesses to do things differently to the way in which they might have done before the pandemic? We have heard a lot about businesses needing to go online and how it has been a fundamental issue that a lot of businesses did not have a strong enough online offering although I appreciate that there might be differences between the general business side and the tourism sector side. How are you supporting businesses within your sector to do things differently, and how important is that going to be in the future?

I am conscious of the time, so I will ask both of you just one more question.

You have talked about some of the limitations, and you have highlighted digital issues. We have seen some of those issues today. Given the issues that are faced with rural broadband and the nature of the areas that you cover, what do we need to do? How can you work to try to deal with some of those barriers, particularly digital barriers? You mentioned the rural housing issue. What do we need from the Scottish Government to address that? As you have said, there can be jobs in a place, but if there is no broadband, rural housing and other services, it is very difficult for businesses to grow and to encourage people to move in.

We have heard today that Scottish Enterprise continues to deliver growth, but throughout the pandemic there has been a focus on supporting existing businesses through extremely difficult times. I will go to Adrian Gillespie first and then on to Malcolm Roughead to get an idea of how that focus might have impacted on long-term growth as it has turned away from new businesses and, over the next few years, how you will balance supporting existing businesses that are still struggling or still need that support. How will you look to develop and support new businesses and entrepreneurship?

My question is for the two chief executives. Throughout the pandemic, there has been a need to support businesses to get them through it. However, as we come out of it, how will you balance the need to continue to support certain sectors with the need to ensure that there are new businesses and start-ups and to support entrepreneurship? As South of Scotland Enterprise is a relatively new organisation, I ask Jane Morrison-Ross whether she feels that she has sufficient budget and resources to be able to do that.

I will go to Carroll Buxton first and then to Jane Morrison-Ross.

If you have a concern about your budget, I am happy for you to raise it, but the question is really about how you achieve a balance between supporting existing businesses and supporting new businesses and entrepreneurship.

First, I believe that Chris Brodie wanted to come in on the previous discussion. I also note that the second part of my question was going to be about the impact on the availability of labour.

I think that everybody accepts that the furlough scheme has been very important, but, as Mairi Spowage said, it will end in the autumn. That causes concern for some but, from speaking to businesses, I know that some feel that labour shortages have increased because people are still on furlough. Jobs are being protected, but there are shortages elsewhere.

Mairi Spowage has covered the issue from her perspective. Would Chris Brodie and Nora Senior like to comment on the importance of the furlough scheme and how it might be impacting on labour shortages?

Some of the problems with remote working have been highlighted today. As someone who joins meetings from Orkney, I am always terrified that it will be me who loses connection, so I have huge sympathy with Chris Brodie and am glad to see him back.

I will let Chris Brodie back in. He can either finish what he was saying or answer my next question. The need for change and what that means has been raised as an issue, so the first question that I was going to ask has been fully answered now. In relation to having the right skills in the right place and ensuring that people with those skills are able to work online from home, what does the Scottish Government need to do to meet that demand? How should it better facilitate home working, ensure that skills are in the right place and encourage people to retrain where we need them?

As a Highlands and Islands MSP and someone from Orkney, I could talk about rural housing and infrastructure all day long, but I will not. I am conscious of the time and the fact that other people want to come in on that subject.

I want to ask Charandeep Singh and Barry McCulloch about the cost of supply infrastructure. I spoke to one importer who had been paying just under £1,000 for a container. In the middle of the pandemic, it went up to around £18,000, and it is now down to about £5,000 or £6,000. Can you give me an idea of the impact of that cost? It would perhaps be helpful if Carolyn Currie could also comment on that.

I think that the issue of business support is about to come up, so I will pass back to the convener.

Good morning. To give you all a heads up, I point out that I will ask Charandeep Singh then Barry McCulloch about the supply chain issue. I would like clarification. We talk about the supply chain as if it is one all-encompassing thing. Of course, some of the shortages that we are seeing are in manufacturing or production at source—for example, there is a lack of production where some products are created.

I want to split the two and look at the supply infrastructure. A number of issues have been raised to do with the impacts of Covid and Brexit. Some of the problems do not relate only to the lack of drivers in this country. There is a shortage of HGV drivers across Europe, so it is not as simple as opening up access to the market and hoping that we will be able to attract people to this country. I am looking, first, for views on that.

The labour shortage is one issue, but there are other issues relating to what I call supply infrastructure, such as people being away on summer holidays and people being forced to isolate and, therefore, not being able to go to work.

The question of what we, as a Scottish Parliament committee, and the Scottish Government can do has been asked repeatedly. We will come on to procurement and business support. Is the aim to make our supply infrastructure more localised and to be able to produce more in Scotland, where we can? Should that involve creating an environment of business support to encourage more Scottish businesses to supply our own markets?