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The following table (taken from the Scottish National Investment Bank’s annual reports) shows the Bank’s operating costs and income for 2020-21 and‎ 2021-22. The Scottish Government provides budget to cover all operating costs which are not covered by the Bank’s income.

The Digital Productivity Labs pilot programme currently has over 250 businesses participating with over 1100 combined tasks on their action plans to support the implementation of their digital projects. The Scottish Government will provide a final update on findings of the programme later this year once it has concluded and next steps can be agreed.

The International Trade and Investment budget funds the delivery of three key plans. These are: A Trading Nation - Scotland's Export Growth Plan; Scotland's Inward Investment Plan and Scotland's Global Capital Investment Plan. Together these work to deliver economic growth as well as a stronger, fairer, greener Scotland that benefits everyone. They enable Scotland to be a highly productive and innovative place to live, work and do business on a global scale.

Evidence shows that our plans are working:

In terms of Inward Investment –

• The EY Annual Attractiveness Survey 2022 showed that Scotland has been the top performing region or nation of the UK, outside of London, in attracting FDI, for the past 7 years.
• Scotland’s FDI projects outpaced Europe and the rest of the UK – Scottish projects were up by 14% from 2020, compared to 5.4% increase in Europe and 1.8% per cent increase in UK.

In terms of Exports –

• Comparing with the previous year, when oil and gas are excluded, Scotland’s international goods exports increased by 20.5% in 2022 compared to 2021. This compares to a 13.3% increase for the UK.

International Trade and Investment’s budget for 2023-24 will be targeted towards the next phase of delivery which will:

• Set the direction on new Market Opportunities to attract high quality inward investment (and associated spill over benefits) and the technologies required to deliver our ambitions in areas such as Energy Transition, focusing on Scotwind and Hydrogen, Space, and Decarbonisation.
• Scale up Scotland’s trade promotion, international reach and profile; promoting Scotland on world stage at key events such as COP28.
• Continue targeted support to enhance our firms’ export capacity. In particular, delivering three Sector Export Plans (SEP) – Life Sciences, Technology and Renewables and the development of a Hydrogen SEP to support the growth of renewables exports from Scotland and identifying new and critical markets
• Push forward our capital plans to support the economy, including exceeding our commitment to the annual capitalisation of the Scottish National Investment Bank, and renewing support for the enterprise agencies and delivery partners.

Ministers and officials meet regularly with wellbeing economy stakeholders, including the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, to discuss our shared commitment to Scotland’s transition to a wellbeing economy. On 4 April 2023, within one week of my appointment as Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, I met with representatives from the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Scotland as part of a roundtable discussion with wellbeing economy stakeholders.

Harper MacLeod are a provider of external legal services to The Scottish Government via call-off contracts under the Legal Services Framework 2019 to 2023 .

The Scottish Government Legal Directorate hold quarterly review meetings with Harper MacLeod to discuss contract performance; adherence to service levels; sustainability; community benefits and contract governance. Other ad hoc meetings will be held between Harper MacLeod and policy and legal colleagues.

The Scottish Government does not comment on legal advice or communications between itself and its legal advisors. In doing so the Scottish Government observes legal professional privilege between client and lawyer. This also maintains the Scottish Ministerial Code, paragraphs 2.38 and 2.39. Therefore, the sharing of content or outcomes of these meetings would be inappropriate.

The Retail Strategy Steering Group was established to guide the content and recommendations of the Retail Strategy and operated for the duration of the strategy’s development.

The Steering Group was Chaired by the then Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, Tom Arthur, and was made up of members from bodies across Trade Organisations, Public Sector Bodies, businesses, and Trade Unions whose expertise and insight helped to shape the Retail Strategy. Actions and recommendations arising from the Steering Group were progressed through a number of thematic workstream groups chaired by members of the Steering Group and comprised of business, policy, and delivery experts.

Three workstreams were identified – People, Place and Sector, which transformed into a set of actions within the Retail Strategy. Following the publication of the Strategy in March 2020. An Industry Leadership group was established to drive and support the delivery of these actions. This group has agreed an outline Delivery Plan, identifying the group’s priorities as well as a critical review process and timelines for measuring success.

The Scottish Government continues to work in partnership with the sector, trade unions and employees, whose experiences are crucial, to help the retail sector in Scotland become an exemplar for inclusive economic growth and play its part in creating a wellbeing economy and a fairer, greener, and stronger Scotland.

The Scottish Government have engaged with the Bank regularly throughout the recruitment process for a new CEO including over the last few weeks.

Since the establishment of Research Data Scotland (RDS) at the end of 2021 my officials have had ongoing engagement with RDS.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials meet regularly with David Lonsdale, the Director of the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC), through engagement with the SRC but also through other means such as the Scottish Government Retail Industry Leadership Group (ILG) - of which Mr Lonsdale is a member. The most recent engagement with the Director of the SRC was held on 22 March 2023. The Scottish Government greatly values regular updates, intelligence and input from the Scottish Retail Consortium which is informing rationale for it’s overall response to the cost crisis and challenges facing Scotland’s retail sector.

The Resource Spending Review included commitments to hold the total public sector pay bill (excluding Local Government) at around 2022-23 levels whilst returning the overall size of the public sector (excluding Local Government) broadly to pre-COVID-19 levels. The overall aim was to ensure sustainable public bodies.

Following further analysis and engagement, our proposal on how we achieve sustainable public bodies evolved and in the 2023-24 Budget, we set out that it is for individual public bodies to locally determine the target operating model for their workforces and to ensure workforce plans and projections are affordable in 2023-24 and in the medium term. This approach recognises the accountability of public bodies to deliver efficiently and effectively within their budget and that budget allocations reflect our priorities.

Our Public Sector Pay Strategy for 2023-24 published on 22 March 2023, recognises that pay and workforce must, more than ever, be explicitly linked to both fiscal sustainability and to reform, to secure the delivery of effective public services over the medium term. It set out that bodies may need to consider the size and shape of the workforce to ensure affordability, alongside opportunities around, for example, digital reform, revenue generation, estates rationalisation and improved procurement and that where a reduction in workforce is required, we would expect this to be through natural turnover wherever possible given our on-going commitment to No Compulsory Redundancies. There are no centrally set targets.