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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 4 May 2021
  6. Current session: 13 May 2021 to 18 September 2025
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Displaying 2972 contributions

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Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

You have covered some of the things that I was going to ask about with that line of questioning about aligning economic growth spending with skills gaps. Andy Witty has given the example of welders, which also came up when we visited the advanced manufacturing district. Are we clear where the skills gaps are and are young people clear about that? It is all very well for us—or for universities and colleges to know—but young people need to know in order to go for the right places for the jobs.

That takes me on to universities. Scottish Enterprise talked about graduates who are in non-graduate jobs, which says to me that we are sending too many young people to university—we should be sending some of them to train as welders instead of to do degrees. I will ask Andy Witty to respond.

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

Do the schools know where the gaps are?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

Do you accept that some young people choose a university subject that they quite like the idea of, although they have no idea whether there will be a job at the end of it?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

It might be unfair to ask you too much about that sector. We got the impression earlier that planning is resistant to modern techniques. Some planning departments like to keep houses looking like they have always looked. Have you picked up on that at all?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

It has been mentioned that some issues are UK wide and some are specific to Scotland. The Scottish Fiscal Commission says that

“the UK-wide higher demand”

for disability benefits especially

“is because of a deterioration in health, meaning more people are eligible, and the cost-of-living pressures”

are encouraging more people to apply. Do you recognise that as a UK-wide issue? Is health getting worse?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

I agree with what you are saying and with what the Government is trying to do. The question for the committee is whether we can afford what we want to do. The SFC has talked about the fact that people in Scotland are supported more—you used the word “support”, too—and that we have promoted some of those payments more. I want us to be kind, gentle and nice, but I am left wondering whether we are going too far down that road, because we cannot afford it.

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

I supported that amendment.

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

I want to go back to Tom Ockendon, if I may, on the combination of housing, skills, and the shortage of workers. I realise that the SFHA does not build houses, but I presume that you have some sort of feel for it. Is the sector moving on with skills and technology as it might be? For example, I have CCG in my constituency, and it does off-site building. I get the impression that off-site building has not taken off in the way that it might have done, despite the fact that it is a nicer environment for workers to work in and it might, for example, suit older workers better than being on site. I also saw an article recently about using robots for bricklaying because we are short of bricklayers. Is the sector really moving forward in that way?

Finance and Public Administration Committee [Draft]

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 16 September 2025

John Mason

Again, I agree with all your arguments, which are all well put. Clearly, if we can help people, then their health improves and there is not the same pressure elsewhere. However, I still wonder—as, I think, the committee does—whether we are getting the balance right in all of this. We call it capping, rationing or whatever. If people need hip replacements or want to get into a care home, they have to wait for quite a long time. The fact that there is a cap means that there is a limit to those budgets and that we can spend only so much on operations, care homes, nursing staff and all those things. However, there seems to be no cap on this budget. I understand that it is demand led, but must it increase by inflation every year, for example? I realise that, if it did not, people would be less well off, but would that not be one way of controlling the expense?

12:30  

Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]

Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 10 September 2025

John Mason

How do we overcome the risks? Is it simply by just moving very slowly?