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Our next item of business is an evidence session on Scotland’s tourism and hospitality sectors, which is designed to provide the committee with a snapshot of the sectors as we recover from the pandemic, in recognition of the important role that they play in Scotland’s economy.

We have two panels this morning. I welcome the first panel. Marc Crothall is the chief executive officer at the Scottish Tourism Alliance, Stephen Montgomery is spokesperson for the Scottish Hospitality Group, and Leon Thompson is executive director of UKHospitality Scotland.

If all members and witnesses could keep their questions and answers concise and to the point, that would be helpful for our timings this morning. I will start off the questions.

Obviously, we have been living through the pandemic, which has been extremely difficult for the hospitality and tourism sectors. In more recent months, at the end of 2021 and into the new year, the omicron variant presented further challenges. Will you tell me about the support that was made available? Omicron was—to some degree—unexpected, and there was an attempt to deliver support quickly.

I will invite all witnesses to answer that; however, if they could be brief, that would be helpful. I invite Leon Thompson to come in first.

Stephen Montgomery, would you like to comment?

Mr Crothall, can you comment on that, and on the way in which funding is being delivered? The previous two witnesses said that they would like to see more targeted funding, but is that a challenge in relation to getting the money out quickly? Is there a balance to be struck between getting the money out the door quickly and doing something that is more granular in relation to identifying who needs support?

Our next item of business is the final evidence session in our inquiry into Scotland’s supply chains. We are looking at the short and medium-term structural challenges facing Scotland’s supply chains and how the challenges and shifts in them are impacting on Scotland’s economy. We are also aware of a number of longer-term challenges that need to be addressed.

We want to consider how to build future resilience and whether there are opportunities to build up domestic supply chains within Scotland. The committee has structured the inquiry around the themes of people, places and product. We are looking to explore those issues with the minister and his team this morning.

I welcome Ivan McKee, the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise. I also welcome his officials from the Scottish Government: David Barnes is interim deputy director of trade policy; George Burgess is deputy director in food and drink; Lewis Hedge is interim deputy director of fair work and labour market strategy; and Dermot Rhatigan is deputy director in manufacturing and industry.

As always, I ask members and witnesses to keep questions and answers as concise as possible. I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

I have some questions about people and skills in the labour market, which you referred to at the end of your statement.

When people think about supply chains, they often focus on products and commodities. We found in our earlier evidence sessions that a lot of the gaps that put pressure on businesses are connected to people and skills. Businesses might be able to source products but have issues with the logistics of getting those here.

One issue that we raised with Skills Development Scotland and the Open University was inactivity in the labour market. That might be a consequence of the pandemic, but there are people who are far away from the labour market or who lack the right skills to get into the labour market. Audit Scotland recently published a report that criticised the way in which skills services are delivered. There are real challenges for the Government, for Skills Development Scotland and for Colleges Scotland.

Can you comment on the Audit Scotland report? How will you respond to the issues that it raised in order to address labour shortages and the pressures that we see in the supply chain?

I will bring in Alexander Burnett, who I think will follow up on some of those issues. I share the minister’s concerns about the situation that we are in since leaving the EU, but it is the new reality, and the Scottish economy must respond to it. Therefore, we must focus on skills and having a sustainable and resilient supply chain.

Please go ahead, Mr Murray.

No members have indicated that they wish to speak in the debate on the motion. I think that members were content with the question-and-answer session.

Motion agreed to.

We move to agenda item 5, which is consideration of a further SSI. The committee is invited to note SSI 2021/465. The purpose of the instrument is to set out the authorities, as per section 9(6) of the Consumer Scotland Act 2020, who are designated as regulators from whom Consumer Scotland can require information related to its functions. I invite members to note the instrument.

Members indicated agreement.

We lost the minister’s connection there for a moment but, if he is finished, you can continue your questions, Jamie.