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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 3 May 2025
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Displaying 1067 contributions

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Economy and Fair Work Committee

Procurement Bill

Meeting date: 5 October 2022

Ivan McKee

That is a good question. I know that Scottish procurement is about 拢14 billion. That includes local authorities, the national health service, other public bodies, the Scottish Government and so on. I do not have a figure for UK Government procurement in Scotland. It depends how you look at that鈥攚hether it is UK bodies that are operating in Scotland and placing their purchase orders from an entity in Scotland or UK Government bodies as a whole across the UK that may be buying from Scotland suppliers. There are a number of different ways to look at that, but I do not have that information to hand.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Procurement Bill

Meeting date: 5 October 2022

Ivan McKee

In the way in which it is drafted it gives powers to UK Government ministers to change things that are devolved.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Procurement Bill

Meeting date: 5 October 2022

Ivan McKee

The issue that Alasdair Hamilton has commented on is about updating. If a new treaty was signed with someone else, it would add that to the list of treaties that would need to be taken into account when you take forward procurement legislation. It covers that.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Trade (Australia and New Zealand) Bill

Meeting date: 5 October 2022

Ivan McKee

Yes. This has come before us for a decision on legislative consent and, as it stands, we cannot agree to it. If the power is superseded by something else in the future, that is as may be, but that does not mean that we going to give consent to something just because it might not be around for very long.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scotland鈥檚 Supply Chains

Meeting date: 26 January 2022

Ivan McKee

It is on-going. There are dozens of aspects to that across the education system. Some of that, such as doing more computer science teaching is schools, is obviously going to take time because of the resource in terms of teachers that are able to deliver those courses. As Mark Logan raised in his report, that is a challenge in itself鈥攚e need to deal with that and then roll out the courses across the school curriculum. It is hugely important. Coming from a science, technology, engineering and maths background, I know how critical that is.

Other aspects of the report鈥檚 recommendations, such as the roll-out of the tech scalers, are on-going. There are different timescales for the different recommendations and action points in the report. To his credit, Mark Logan has kept up the pressure. We are asking the Government and the system to do things differently. I am keen for the Government to be more agile, responsive and able to execute initiatives such as those that are proposed in the work that has been undertaken by Mark Logan. We continue to push that along as fast as possible. We are on the right track.

The strategy for economic transformation will come out shortly and that builds on the work of the Logan report, extending it to other sectors and parts of the economy. It broadens the approach to tech scalers and supporting those growth businesses, as well as focusing on the skills aspect and ensuring that people in the early stages of their career and mid-career are able to retrain in tech, coding skills and digital skills of all shapes and sizes in order to meet the broader requirements of the new industries that we are developing in Scotland.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scotland鈥檚 Supply Chains

Meeting date: 26 January 2022

Ivan McKee

What we can do is what we are doing. As I said, it is not the whole answer. What we can do is marginal in the sense that it will allow us to tackle some of the issues, but not the key barriers to international trade, which is hugely unhelpful. As I said, the work that we are doing to support more manufacturing in Scotland is part of the solution, but鈥攁s you rightly said鈥擝rexit restrictions make supply chains difficult for businesses, consumers and the Scottish economy.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scotland鈥檚 Supply Chains

Meeting date: 26 January 2022

Ivan McKee

The situation will vary sector by sector and opportunity by opportunity. However, in advanced engineering, life sciences and other sectors in which we have opportunities to manufacture more in Scotland, the shortage of specific skills that would normally have come from the international talent pool is a key issue. A significant similar brake has been put on businesses in other parts of the economy, including agriculture, food processing, hospitality and tourism, which rely on significant numbers of migrant workers. Those sectors are suffering as a result of Brexit and the restriction on labour migration.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scotland鈥檚 Supply Chains

Meeting date: 26 January 2022

Ivan McKee

Those are good questions. The first point that I would reflect on is the suggestion in your question that we know where the gaps are. It is one thing to say that the construction industry needs 22,000 people, but the question, then, is what skills are needed. Clearly, a wide range of skills is required on any construction site.

We also need to look at the trends in the sector. At the moment, we are doing a lot of work on developing capacity, capability and innovation in off-site manufacturing, which moves a lot of construction work in modular form into factory settings and therefore will require a different skill set. There has also been a shift in the materials that are being used as a consequence not only of shortages but of the transition to net zero, with more timber structures鈥攐r, indeed, different types of timber structure鈥攃oming into play, and the types of skills that are required to support all that work are different, too. The situation is evolving over time, and it is important that we stay close to it.

Likewise, we talk about digital skills, but the fact is that coding languages evolve every year or two. I am not an expert in the area, but when you look at the requirements involved, you can see how someone who was trained in coding 10鈥攐r even five鈥攜ears ago might find that their skills are largely out of date. It is therefore important that they understand what the new coding requirements are and can upgrade accordingly. Of course, that is different from the broad-based digital skills that are required by people who are not necessarily involved in digital work all the time but who might need to know how to work a spreadsheet, for example, or how to deal with certain digital connectivity issues. We should understand that, even within such broad buckets, there is a whole range of different issues to take into account.

As for the question of how we get people to take advantage of these things, you are right to suggest that there will be a whole range of things involved in that. Some people will be very hungry to take part and will see it as an advancement and an opportunity to up their income and to put themselves in a more advantageous position, while there will be others whom you will need to make aware of the opportunities. That sort of thing will extend through the whole piece, so there needs to be closer engagement between business and schools to ensure that the young people who are coming through understand what the opportunities are, are able to set their sights on achieving them and can see how their choice of subjects or decision about whether to go into further or higher education reflects the types of careers and opportunities that exist and how they can take advantage of them.

Similarly, people in mid-career might decide to reskill, and there are some great initiatives in, say, coding training out there. We will look to develop that aspect. There are also, unfortunately, people who are facing redundancy and the partnership action for continuing employment鈥攐r PACE鈥攊nitiative is there to support them. Again, a huge priority is to make people aware of the different retraining opportunities that exist.

I have also mentioned labour market inactivity. How do we ensure that people who are out of work for health reasons but who might be able to work, say, part-time or in certain employment can focus on getting the essential skills that they need? Moreover, people who are returning to the labour market after having a family need to be aware of what is available. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people, but the training programmes are there and the Scottish Government is putting in a significant amount of funding. That said, you are absolutely right; we need to join all of this up and ensure that provision reflects what businesses need now and in future and that people are aware of what is available. It is something that we are constantly focused on.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scotland鈥檚 Supply Chains

Meeting date: 26 January 2022

Ivan McKee

Yes, of course. Transport connectivity is hugely important. The Government has published its strategic transport projects review to identify the steps that it is taking. It is important that all that is addressed and that we continue to improve transport links, whether road, rail or ferries. I have no doubt that the new Minister for Transport will already be all over that鈥擺Inaudible.]

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scotland鈥檚 Supply Chains

Meeting date: 26 January 2022

Ivan McKee

On you go.