Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning. Thank you all for joining us.

Robbie, you mentioned the draft national planning framework 4, which will place a number of new net zero-related commitments on developers and planning authorities. I am interested to find out whether you think that the profession is prepared for such changes and what you think needs to happen. What should planners be doing to help to deliver net zero?

Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you. Is there more of a challenge for rural local authorities in the agenda of embedding climate change skills, upskilling, reskilling or whatever right across all aspects of local authority delivery?

Thank you, Jamie. I will move on to my question for Chris Brodie. Skills planning clearly focuses on the anticipated needs of industry to deliver green jobs, but we are focusing on local authorities and the transition to a net zero society. What modelling have you done in relation to local authorities that are major employers, apart from anything else, and are, as we know, key to the delivery of net zero? What assessment have you made of local authorities’ staffing and professional needs for the transition?

Simon, you talked about the need to scale up net zero skills and training as happened when we had the big expansion of early years educators, and I would like to hear more about that.

We have also heard that supply and demand are very locally planned. Colleges are very well placed to do that, and they are very adaptable and flexible in that respect. For example, West Lothian College in my area is, with funding from the Scottish Government and councils in West Lothian, working with private builders on building a traditional house for retrofitting and a Passivhaus in order to provide skills and retraining. Is that sort of thing happening in all colleges, and what more can be done to make sure that that agenda is properly seized?

Good morning. You have already talked about the importance of the bank not crowding out private finance, and the fact that the role of the bank is to invest where the private sector is failing to provide sufficient finance. How can the bank ensure that it is investing in a company or project that would not get private investment? Can you give us an indication of where there is greater appetite from the private sector to invest and where there is less appetite? Within your Venn diagram, are there areas that you might look to target?

I know that it is early days, but is there any evidence that the bank is attracting domestic and international private investment into Scotland? By its sheer existence, a development bank can provide a mission-led focus. Obviously, the bank is attracting interest but does it give outside investors confidence that there is something interesting going on in Scotland that they want to be part of?

Good morning. The focus on transformation and change means that you want to do things differently. There is a focus on the entrepreneurial aspect as well as on the need to be streamlined and focused on delivery. One of the things that is mentioned in the entrepreneurship section of the strategy is expansion to all sectors of the tech-scaler model. That model comes with a cost. Expanding it to all sectors will mean that it is not necessarily streamlined or focused, but it will have a cost, which will mean that other things will not happen unless you have additional budget. Will you unpack some of that thinking for us?

I am sure that, at some point, the committee will have to focus on what is not going to be done.

I will move on to questions about resilience in supply chains. “Delivering Economic Prosperity” is a 10-year transformational strategy. However, we are dealing, and will continue to deal, with the consequences of Brexit. We are still living through a pandemic. International security issues and the war in Ukraine will also have global economic consequences. Therefore, a resilient supply chain is more important than ever.

You focused your earlier remarks on ScotWind and the supply chain for new and developing industries. However, during the 10 years of the strategy, an important focus will remain on resilience in the bread-and-butter industries—our foundational economy. I refer to food and drink, engineering and construction, for example. What measures in the strategy will enable Scotland to build a more resilient supply chain overall to help us to ensure that we have economic security?

The committee has heard that, as we go through the various stages of the coronavirus pandemic, the rail industry will have to understand passenger needs better and flex services accordingly. How will you create a railway that is focused on meeting the current needs of rail passengers—I might add that one can only just get a seat on the Linlithgow to Edinburgh rush-hour trains, so already passengers are coming back on to that line—and how will you adapt to the needs of people who could travel by rail but are choosing not to? You talked about the current situation, with more people travelling at the weekends and so on, but we need a step change. How are you planning to attract more people, including those who could use rail but are not doing so, to the railways? I suspect that price might well be an issue.