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That was very helpful. It has also been mentioned that the debt stock has a historically short average maturity. Why is that? My understanding is that that makes it more susceptible to interest rate changes.

That is helpful. I picked up on the word “burden” because the committee recently had a conference on taxation at which we discussed the way in which we talk about tax and trying to make the public more enthusiastic about it.

Another figure that you have come up with is that debt is rising from 84.3 per cent to 97.6 per cent of GDP. We also talk about interest rates, which are currently well below inflation. Traditionally, however, one of the reasons for raising interest rates would be that a country’s currency is struggling; presumably, the higher the debt, the more questions there are about the currency. Should we be concerned about the 97.6 per cent figure or should the fact that it is planned to come down again reassure us?

Thank you. I have a couple more questions that touch on things that have already been mentioned. The first is on the health impact and the suggestion that investment in health might get people back to work. Is there any concern about long Covid and, indeed, the effects of Covid, hospital waiting times and all the rest of it? Is that having an actual effect on the economy?

You have given me a few answers, so I could ask 20 supplementary questions. I will take the issue of training as an example, because one person who spoke to the committee told us that they felt that, as they got older, their employer was less and less willing to send them on training courses and therefore their information technology skills were not up to speed. The thought of going back to that might be difficult, especially for someone who has had a break for a couple of years during Covid. What you said about Age Scotland working with employers to do a bit more on training older workers is encouraging. Do you think that the issue is widespread?

I have slipped just beyond the 50 to 64 age group.

You mentioned flexible working once or twice, but we have had a mixed picture from witnesses. We have heard some good examples. There was a young guy who had health issues who works for Tesco. He cannot handle big crowds, so his employer has got him working at night. That struck me as good, and he is really happy about that. However, we heard from an older lady who had had a break from work—I am not sure whether she was furloughed—and who, as a result of health issues, being older and perhaps having caring responsibilities, wanted to go back to work in a slightly more flexible way than she had worked previously. However, her employer—I cannot remember whether she worked in the private or the public sector; it might have been the public sector, actually—was totally inflexible. Basically, the employer said that she had to come back 9 to 5, or whatever the equivalent was. Can the Government do more on that, or is it really just up to individual employers?

Yes. When you say “fair work”, the thing that jumps to mind for most people is a living wage, but it is correct to say that fair work includes quite a lot more than that, including flexibility.

Another group to consider is people with fluctuating conditions that mean one day they will feel good and can work eight hours, but on another day they will not feel so good. We have had evidence that, in some sectors, it is easier for employers to be supportive. If a person is doing office work, it does not matter whether they do all of their work on Tuesday or they do all of it on Wednesday, but if they are serving in a restaurant they have to be there on certain days. Is it more difficult for some sectors to be flexible?

Another group to consider is those who already have a long-term disability or who have health issues because of Covid, who are very nervous about going back to work and being with a lot of people. I guess that it could be difficult for employers to be able to adapt to that.

We have met various people over the past few weeks, and a subject that we discussed with some people with experience is early retirement. There seems to be quite a mixed picture in that regard. There are clearly some professional people with good pensions who, in their mid-50s or at 60, feel that they want a different work-life balance and take retirement. However, that means that the economy loses their experience and their energy—at least in paid employment; they may be doing other things.

Do we just accept that people in that group have gone and we cannot do anything about it, or should we be trying to bring some of them back into the labour market?

I am interested in the level of interest rates. At 4 per cent, they are felt to be high at the moment, but they are considerably lower than inflation. If that was to continue in the long term, would everybody not just borrow and make a profit? Are we in an unusual situation at the moment, or could it continue to be the case in the long term that inflation is higher than interest rates?