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Good morning, minister. You talked about how you are close to reaching the target 50 per cent employment rate for disabled people. The figure specifically for people with autism is a pretty shocking—it is 16 per cent, compared with 73 per cent for the wider population. However, the committee is constantly being told by employers that they have real labour supply shortages. They are obviously missing out on a talented workforce.

Given that that priority group should be supported in order to tackle that low figure, why are organisations that work with young people with autism, for example, being plagued by considerable delays in funding? Many organisations were told that decisions on Government funding would be made by the end of December; they are now being told that decisions are delayed until well into the next financial year. That obviously makes it impossible for them to plan, and in some cases it is leading to their being under threat. They need to hand out redundancy notices to staff because they will not be notified of funding until beyond the current financial year. What has caused those delays, and what is their extent?

It is about consistency in the evaluation.

I want to come back to the point about the recent cut to the budget. Like you, I am confused about the impact. One issue that organisations have raised with me has been the delays in allocating funding, although I am not sure—I do not know whether this is something that you have picked up from your work—whether the delay was caused by the £53 million not being forthcoming or just general delays in the whole system. At the moment, many organisations are in a really precarious position and are waiting for funding that normally would have been allocated, but that has not happened. Have you picked up that in your work?

Funding in general seems to be a bit of a lottery. Groups of people are employed full time just, in effect, constantly chasing funding. What do we need to do about streamlining the process to make it a more regular source of funding rather than one that requires constant running around trying to get it? Surely we need to do something about streamlining it.

I want to follow up on that point with Emma Congreve. Is the challenge the fact that there is such a cocktail of different funding pots that all have their own criteria and evaluation? Are you arguing that we should try to streamline that and bring the funds together?

You touch on a major issue for an organisation that I am involved with at the moment. It has had a funding application with the Scottish Government for months. Where are the delays coming from? Why is it different this year from how it was two or three years ago? What has happened to cause the delays?

Will we see a scale-back in direct investment for businesses from the agencies?

It is widely recognised that we are in a recession. The Deputy First Minister said that, despite the fall in the level of labour inactivity, we could be at a labour market turning point as we are seeing vacancies fall and redundancies rise. However, in addition to the funding cut to VisitScotland, as highlighted by Fiona Hyslop, the enterprise agencies will also have their overall funding cut. Scottish Enterprise will have 4.9 per cent cut in real terms; 5.5 per cent will be cut from Highlands and Islands Enterprise; and South of Scotland Enterprise will have a 9.7 per cent cut, which continues a longer-term trend. What are the reasons for those cuts? What assessment have you made of how they will impact support for businesses?

It is widely recognised that the increase in renewables, particularly in onshore wind power, has cut emissions but has not delivered the huge potential economic benefits that were envisaged, especially for jobs. The Scottish Trades Union Congress made that point in its response to the publication of the strategy.

When you were Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, we were promised that there would be 130,000 jobs in renewables per year by 2020. The Government does not record the numbers of such jobs, but a recent report by the Fraser of Allander Institute estimated that the actual number is only 27,000 per year. Does the Government currently have a target for jobs in renewables, which the strategy might help to deliver?

How do we measure that? At the moment, most of the onshore wind turbines that we see carpeted across our landscape are not built here in Scotland. How can we assess whether we are reaching that potential? The number of jobs in renewables will increase because of the work that is taking place, but how do we assess whether that is delivering the scale of the potential that is clearly out there?

I have a brief question on business rates, Deputy First Minister. Last year, the approach to reliefs was recognised as being less generous than that in England and Wales. This year, the Fraser of Allander Institute, in its budget response, stated:

“This year, John Swinney has seemingly taken an even more hardline approach and there are no additional reliefs applied to hospitality and retail as is the case south of the border.”

Given the real pressures on those sectors, which the committee highlighted, why was that choice made? I appreciate that there is a freeze in the multiplier, and relief for renewables, but why is there no specific relief for the hospitality and retail sectors, given the pressures that they are under?