Seòmar agus comataidhean

I wish colleagues a good morning. It is good to be back at my former committee—I recognise some of the faces round the table.

Katy Clark is absolutely right that a key target of employability programmes is parental employability, and we work with our partners to ensure that that remains the case in their work. Aidan Grisewood will provide a bit more detail on this in a second, but I can tell you that, so far, the programmes have been doing relatively well. We know that a quarter of all those involved go on to work and a further quarter go on to a further positive destination, including further education or training.

We are pleased with that. Obviously, there is more work to do to contextualise that data, but this is certainly a key priority for us in addressing the child poverty issues on which the committee has been focused. We must continue to ensure that we offer all the support that we possibly can within the resources that we and local government have and support parents who have often—at least in the programmes that we have put in place—been furthest from the employment market.

Aidan, do you want to supplement any of that?

I appreciate your question and, again, I will bring in Aidan Grisewood to supplement the information that I am able to impart.

I go back to the importance of interacting with the UK Government. Given that many of the people who interact with the Scottish Government’s employability schemes are signposted to them through the jobcentre network, it is important that we have good interaction and a good relationship at that level. Having a supportive environment and system at UK level that ensures that people feel able to interact with the jobcentre network is critical, too.

As for our tracking and monitoring, we look at things at every three-month, six-month and 12-month juncture so that we understand where people are on their journey. Indeed, that is where the information and statistics that I have given come from, but we are always looking at what more we can do, working with our local government partners that deliver many of these programmes, as well as with community and voluntary sector colleagues, to ensure that we get as much information as possible and that, as Roz McCall has suggested, we are monitoring and evaluating those investments to find out whether they are being as effective as possible.

I do not know whether Aidan Grisewood wants to add anything that I might have missed.

My only comment is on Mr Doris’s question about where the funding has gone. It has been redeployed to ensure that the First Minister’s commitment to not just double but treble the fuel insecurity fund can be realised this year. That is where some of this year’s budget allocation went.

To give Mr Lumsden confidence, I am well aware of the need for more information, particularly for those in agriculture and food production. I had a round-table session in the south of Scotland, organised by South of Scotland Enterprise, as part of my summer tour. There is a keenness among those who work the land and who generate income from it to do the right thing. Some of them are already looking to decarbonise their operations and have taken big strides to do so. You are right that they are looking for information. I am well aware and cognisant of that, as is Mairi Gougeon. As Kersti Berge said, we will do what we can to provide as much information as we can as quickly as we can.

There is constant evaluation on all our funding streams across Government. We will continue to consider how well they are performing to ensure that—as I have said—we are targeting our limited resource in a way that adds maximum value to our enterprises that are looking to come forward with decarbonisation measures. We will provide as much support as we can to industry. Mr Lumsden has already referenced a number of sectors. This is not just about one element of the economy that will do the heavy lifting for us to reach net zero—it will not just be about energy generation or heat in buildings; there will be a raft of areas, and all of us will have to play our part to ensure that we decarbonise and reach net zero by 2045.

Sorry?

Our target is 2045. We also have 2030 targets. All the funds that we put forward, which Mr Lumsden has listed, are intended to ensure that we take steps in different parts of the economy to reach those ultimate targets. Some of that is about trying to inspire good behaviour; some of it is to support people in taking difficult but necessary decisions around changing the way that they do their operations. All of it is geared up to ensure that we reach the 2045 target.

It is certainly not possible, without the devolution of those powers, to take away the potential for a public inquiry that adds a year to the process. That is an important aspect of ensuring that people can have their say on projects. However, you are right that, for us to be able to make full and meaningful progress, there is a need for interaction with the UK Government. Particularly on onshore wind, it would be an understatement to say that we are on different pages as to the importance of that particular element of renewable energy. As we saw from allocation round 5—AR5—just this week, the same applies to offshore wind.

We will continue to interact and engage as best we can with the UK Government and try to ensure that there is as much alignment as possible and that it is doing its share to provide as much certainty as possible, because that is an ask not just of the Scottish Government on consenting but of the UK Government on the areas for which it has responsibility.

No. We have had no information other than what you have seen to be publicly available, Mr Lumsden.

As I have said, that money will be available when we have the information about the emitters that will be included and when the process will be concluded. At this stage, we do not have that information, so we cannot spend that money. When we have that information, we will spend that money. I cannot be any clearer than that.