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Good morning, Mr Lowe, and welcome to your colleagues.

Will you give us a bit of a flavour of the work that you did to assess the impact of the delay of the census on the delivery of public services in Scotland, and on the allocation of funding to councils and other public bodies?

That answer was quite focused on process. We are going to be out of sync. You identified that there are challenges but said that they are not insurmountable. Can you let us know what some of the challenges are?

I will start by focusing on capital borrowing. In 2020-21, the Scottish Government borrowed £200 million against its capability of £450 million. There was a similar picture with the use of that leverage in 2018-19 and 2019-20. Could the Scottish Government make fuller use of its capital borrowing powers to help to achieve its capital investment priorities?

Finally, I have a three-part question about resource borrowing. Can you give us a flavour of how effective the Scottish Government has been in utilising its resource borrowing powers? Has the pandemic highlighted any concerns about the scale of those powers? Looking back to 2017-18, there was an overestimate of income tax, which meant that the Government could borrow in relation to that. If, year on year, we find ourselves with the same problem, at what point does a forecasting problem become a structural problem? If we continue not to meet the income tax receipts that the Government suggests, do you have any concern that using resource borrowing to balance shortfall might become a structural issue, rather than a forecasting issue? Do you have any concerns in relation to income tax?

On your point about how the borrowing is accounted for, would it be realistic for the capital borrowing figures to be supported and detailed in the consolidated accounts or as part of the major capital projects updates?

Thank you.

It does, thank you.

I have one final question before we move on to the financial impact of the delay. First, I want to put it out there that the cost of the delay was £21.6 million. Given your previous answer, would it be right to say that, even though there is a perception that that money may be lost, you have actually used it to invest in greater flexibility, agility and efficiency in the system? Perhaps crisis begets opportunity in that respect.

Thank you very much for your time.

To put it simply, it would be CAMRA and SIBA. However, Paul Hegarty from the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group attended as a guest and would be supportive in helping us establish some of the programmes that have been very successful at Westminster—such as the awards programme—as well as in relation to the possibility of getting a guest ale or beer into the parliamentary estate at Holyrood.

Good morning, Mr Whitfield, and a happy new year to you and committee members.

On 7 December 2021, the cross-party group on beer and pubs held its inaugural meeting, in order to prepare for this meeting. That was in recognition of the fact that there are now more than 4,600 pubs and 120 breweries in Scotland. The industry is an emerging sector, and there is presently no committee or cross-party group looking after its interests within the Parliament. We also know that, as well as being an emerging sector, it is a sector that is presently at risk as a result of the Covid pandemic and the restrictions that were imposed on the hospitality sector.

The purpose of the CPG is to celebrate, recognise and enhance the contribution of the brewing and pub-related hospitality industry in Scotland. We hope that the CPG will operate through semi-regular meetings, occasional visits and an annual event at which the best of Scotland’s beer and pub sector can be showcased.

The CPG will aim to develop constituency-level awareness of the contribution of the beer and pub sector as well as an awards programme to encourage recognition of local pubs and breweries. I believe that the convener recognises that contribution due to the fact that, while serving as a member of Parliament, he nominated my local pub in East Lothian, the Tyneside Tavern—one of many excellent pubs in East Lothian and across the south of Scotland—for a local pub award.

The CPG will also provide a forum in which to discuss the policies that will impact on the beer and pub sector and affect beer drinkers and pub goers across Scotland. We will also look closely at the important issues of responsible drinking, the social impact of alcohol and the public health implications.

We understand that beer and pubs play a huge part in every region that we represent, socially and economically, and that they are job and wealth creators. That will also be a core focus of the group.

With the committee’s permission, I would be the convener of the group and Paul Sweeney would be the vice-convener. We also have a wide range of prospective members from across all parties. The secretariat would be provided and supported by the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group, the Campaign for Real Ale—CAMRA—and the Society of Independent Brewers, which is known as SIBA. We would also be supported by the Scottish Beer and Pub Association. With that, I will hand back to the convener.