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I do not disagree at all. It is not an area that we have been neglecting in between committee appearances, but it has lots of challenges to it. That is not an excuse, but we will come back to the committee in writing as comprehensively as we can about where we have disaggregated gender data.

I know that, next week, we will have sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, and national representation, worth billions.

I would quite like to have £1 billion.

The thing with productivity is that we cannot deliver productivity only through public spend. One of the challenges that Scotland has had for so long is incentivising business investment in productivity—

My view is that it has been a challenging decade for many businesses and for the economy. Ultimately, that points to the need for a diversified economy in Scotland. We always see it in the income tax figures but, compared to the rest of the UK, Scotland’s industry is made up of some big beasts, such as financial enterprise and energy.

That means that, when either of those sectors is affected, there is a disproportionate impact on the Scottish economy, whereas England, for example, is less dependent on its big beasts and is more diversified. The past 10 years have been particularly challenging for the two industries that I mentioned. Economic headwinds have a disproportionate impact on Scotland because of our reliance on some of the big industries.

Yes.

There are three things. Businesses are always more likely to invest when their costs are lower. If businesses are spending more on national insurance contributions, to take one example, they are less inclined to reinvest their profits. The first thing, therefore, is to support businesses by giving them a bit of breathing space to reinvest in productivity, which is a business choice. There is also something around demonstrating the benefit to the business of reinvesting in productivity. Some of the headwinds that we are experiencing, particularly those affecting labour shortages, are already driving businesses to reinvest, because they have to reinvest in technology if they cannot recruit. That is point number 1.

Point number 2 is about supporting businesses to transition to the new world in which we operate. There was a huge focus on that in 2018, 2019 and 2020, focusing on things such as digital boost through Business Gateway, with its adoption of technology. Covid drove that exponentially higher, in that businesses had to adapt anyway. We are now facing new challenges around AI—and I have already talked about what Richard Lochhead is doing around supporting businesses with AI.

Thirdly, there is the question of what businesses can do internally, among their sectors. We already support a number of initiatives. For example, in the advanced manufacturing sector, we have the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, or NMIS, the job of which is to support innovation in manufacturing across all businesses that operate in that sector. A couple of weeks ago, I launched the deep tech supercluster, which is all about getting businesses to embrace technology. We are doing a six-month pilot with different sectors that need to embrace a more technological approach.

Those are three examples of what can be done and is being done, but it cannot be public-sector led alone.

We will have to demonstrate how every part of the Government is in accordance with the climate change plan. That is the approach that we will take, and the economy directorate is not immune from being part of that process.

The temptation for me to comment on that is quite significant, but the Scottish National Investment Bank is operationally independent. The moment that I start to pass comment on its commercial decisions, that independence is compromised. Given its independent position, it will make investments that members might think are great ideas and others that members might think are not such great ideas. The whole point is that the Scottish National Investment Bank is free from political interference, which is what makes it such an impactful investor. I do not want to compromise that.

We have very clearly set out the three missions that the bank is to focus on: pursuing a just transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2045, which might involve forestry; extending quality of opportunity by improving places—it is a place-based approach; and harnessing innovation to enable our people to flourish by 2040. By design, those are not prescriptive, so that, again, the bank knows that it operates within parameters but that it is free to make investment decisions independently of the Government.

The legislation is extremely flexible. The point is that, under the legislation, local authorities must consult extensively with industry and, if they wish, introduce a scheme that is operational—in other words, one that can actually be implemented. On the basis of the communication that you refer to, I would assume that there is a point there that needs to be highlighted to local authorities about the way in which they charge the visitor levy.

For me, that is a question of operational implementation. Fundamentally it is a question for the City of Edinburgh Council, which should be consulting with industry as we speak to determine how to do it.