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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 16 August 2025
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Displaying 2212 contributions

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Economy and Fair Work Committee

Business Investment

Meeting date: 21 December 2022

Graham Simpson

Thank you, that is very useful. I will give the last word on free ports to Fergus Mutch. Obviously, we do not know where the free ports will be just yet, but we hope that we will get an announcement soon. I guess that you are desperate for one in the north-east.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scotland’s Economic Outlook

Meeting date: 14 December 2022

Graham Simpson

Okay. John Swinney is making a statement tomorrow. If you were to speak to him today, what is the one thing that you would ask him to announce tomorrow?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scotland’s Economic Outlook

Meeting date: 14 December 2022

Graham Simpson

I am going to ask another question about inflation, and I will start with Professor Chadha. First, I congratulate you on managing to get the word “hipster” into a recent report that you wrote. Well done for that.

The Bank of England published its monetary policy report recently, and it predicted that inflation could fall to 1.4 per cent by the end of 2024. That is quite a dramatic drop. What is that based on, and is there any prospect of it actually happening?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scotland’s Economic Outlook

Meeting date: 14 December 2022

Graham Simpson

That is fair enough. Although inflation is the big issue, you are saying that we need some inflation. We do not want to choke off inflation altogether because that could have harmful effects.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scotland’s Economic Outlook

Meeting date: 14 December 2022

Graham Simpson

I will widen the question for the other two witnesses. How confident are you that the economy in general can recover in the next year to 18 months, say? I will ask Susan Murray that first, and then Emma Congreve. Can you give us any Christmas cheer? Everyone seems to be a bit gloomy at the moment.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition

Meeting date: 7 December 2022

Graham Simpson

So we will see that along with the other plans, probably by the end of June.

The Climate Change Committee’s report is pretty damning. It has published a table, which is useful, so I will go through it. On transport, the milestone for no new fossil fuel car sales by 2030 is “Slightly off track” and the Scottish Government’s policy of a 20 per cent reduction on 2019 car kilometres by 2030 is “Significantly off track”. On the low-carbon heat milestone, it is “Too early to say” and the energy efficiency milestone is “Significantly off track”. Afforestation is “Slightly off track” and peatland restoration “Significantly off track”. Recycling rates are also “Significantly off track”. If that was a school report for you, minister, you would be kept in after school, would you not?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition

Meeting date: 7 December 2022

Graham Simpson

I will focus on transport because, as you know, it is the biggest emitter of carbon. The Just Transition Commission has also focused on transport. It says that

“Scotland’s public transport network requires vast improvement and must be made more affordable”

and it talks about ScotRail capacity needing to be expanded, not reduced.

In the report that has come out today, the Climate Change Committee says:

“Plans to decarbonise transport in Scotland are falling behind ... Scotland has a laudable aim to reduce car-kilometres by 20% on 2019 levels ... This is a challenging goal and current plans lack a full strategy”.

There is no strategy and there are no policies in place to achieve that, are there?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition

Meeting date: 7 December 2022

Graham Simpson

That is interesting. I would caution against using regulations but, if you use them, they will have to be trailed in advance. When you are, in essence, forcing people to spend money, that is very controversial and difficult to do, if not impossible.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition

Meeting date: 7 December 2022

Graham Simpson

Thank you for agreeing to stay on for a bit.

I want to follow up on the previous line of questioning. The Just Transition Commission said that there should be a skills guarantee for workers in carbon-intensive industries, and I think that you committed to that. Will we be in a position to offer that guarantee? How would it look if there are not the jobs? Maybe there are the jobs but not the people.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition

Meeting date: 7 December 2022

Graham Simpson

I would like to ask Catriona Laing a question, if that would be okay.

Earlier, you mentioned regulations—I think that that was in relation to buildings. In the previous session of Parliament, I convened the tenement maintenance working group. As you will be aware, there are huge issues with a lot of Scotland’s properties, such as the problems of obtaining agreement from owners to get work done and figuring out how it will be paid for. The working group looked at those areas and produced some recommendations. The matter is now in the hands of the Scottish Law Commission. It will take years to resolve. I would be interested to get a bit more detail on what you are working on.