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As laid out in the register of members’ interests, my interests relate to the ownership of some rental properties.

I welcome the panel. As the convener indicated, I would like to ask for witnesses’ views about the likely success of the Scottish safer buildings accord. It would appear that some progress has been made on negotiations between the Government and developers, but our understanding is that they have reached a deadlock. I would like your perspective on where the accord is and on the likelihood of its success.

Okay. Is there any other input on that point?

Does anyone else have thoughts on that? If not, thank you.

We worked through that process and had our four red lines, and we were happy that the UK Government eventually came to accept that those four red lines were valid and agreed with us that the green port projects should be taken forward on the basis of net zero commitments, fair work commitments, equal funding and two ports in Scotland.

We went through a very robust process earlier this year, and the teams working behind the scenes did a great job to evaluate the bids that came in. We had hoped to make that announcement in the summer, but it is a joint Government approach and, since then, there have been a number of changes of personnel, Government, focus and direction at Westminster. People say that we should work more closely with the UK Government, and we are doing so, but it is not quite clear who that is at any given point in time, which makes it kind of hard to work with. We had hoped to make announcements in August, but we are now in November. We still hope to make announcements very shortly, but we have been saying that for three months now. The ball is not in our court.

To finish off the previous point, work is taking place on building regulations. The 2024 new-build heat standard is being put in place. Work is happening on that all the time and standards have been updated to take account of the factors that we have talked about.

The decline in manufacturing has been an issue in western economies, particularly the UK, over decades, as we know. It was an issue when I studied manufacturing and engineering in 1980 and it continues to be one.

On what we are doing about that issue, it is important to recognise that the solutions are not things that you turn on like a switch—they take a long time. The technology, investment, expertise, accreditations and market credibility all take a long time to build up. From our perspective, it is about identifying where Scotland has the opportunity to have globally leading positions in specific manufacturing sectors and then to double down on support and build on that through a combination of inward investment and, importantly, growing indigenous supply chains and businesses in partnership.

An obvious example is the small satellite manufacturing cluster that has been built up over the past decade or two and is now a world-leading sector. We continue to get additional inward investment into that and to grow those businesses, but there is also a really strong focus from all parts of the public sector to support that ecosystem.

We have talked about the ScotWind investment, to which developers have committed £28 billion. The issue is not getting the developers to commit the money; it is finding somewhere to spend it, because you need £28 billion-worth of capacity in the Scottish supply chain to deliver on those projects.

We are working with hundreds of engineering businesses in Scotland that are part of the clusters in the sector. We are working with Scottish Engineering and others in relation to engineering businesses that have not looked at the energy supply chain or other sectors as opportunities to diversify. That will be done through a combination of information, encouragement, skills support, investment support, networking, accreditation and so on. All that needs to click to get it to work, and we are hugely focused on doing that. NMIS is doing a solid job at the centre of that ecosystem, but a lot of other things are happening around that to make it deliverable.

A number of parts of Government look at that. You are right that the supply chain development programme will look at opportunities to build Scotland’s economic capacity onshore, and establish in Scotland robust supply chains, where we recognise that we have the capability to compete globally and can build indigenous industries on the back of that.

Clearly, if something happens that brings a risk to food supplies, for example, that is resilience work, which happens in the Scottish Government resilience room—the Scottish Government group that is led by the Deputy First Minister. That group would look at those specific and very short-term resilience issues, and at other aspects of disaster recovery.

As you know, many of the levers are controlled by the UK Government. We wish that that was not the case but, while it is, we work within that environment. In relation to welfare and social security support, it has been widely recognised by users of the service that Social Security Scotland has been doing a very effective job, but its focus, of course, is on only a small number of benefits. In terms of magnitude, the vast bulk of benefits still come through UK Government channels, and decisions on universal credit and so on have a significant impact on how people are supported.

Energy policy is, of course, reserved, which very much constrains what we can do. We are doing what we can through ScotWind and other initiatives not only to increase energy supply but to decarbonise. However, energy policy and many of the levers in that space are reserved.

Borrowing powers are also reserved. As has already been identified, the Scottish Government must work within very constrained limits. The situation is made even more unhelpful by not understanding what the limitations are, because, given the delay to the UK Government’s fiscal event, we do not actually know what our budget is. We need to know that to allow us to operate within that budget, given our constrained borrowing powers.

Colin Beattie is right to identify that much of what is needed is driven by levers that the UK Government continues to control.

You and I will get a truck, drive around one weekend and have a look.

You are right: there is work to do. You will appreciate that that work is part of the broader portfolio brief, but I undertake to follow up that issue and respond to the committee on the specifics of what is happening and the timeline for taking that work forward.

We need to unpack that a wee bit to identify what we are trying to address in different aspects. In schools, we are giving young people an appetite for computer science and a basic level of knowledge about how it works and what careers in computer science can be like. Obviously, diversity and inclusion are a huge part of that—it is about tackling the gender gap and broadening the reach across other groups that we want to be more widely represented in digital jobs. The work at that level is focused on giving young people an appetite for the subject. Clearly, what we are teaching them now and what they will use in their career in 20 years’ time will be very different; we do not know what that will be.

That brings me on to the second aspect, which is how people who are in employment in digital jobs, and others who want to move into that later in life, are brought up to speed. Clearly, much of that work will be done by the industry. We are not in a position to say which coding language people need to learn for next year or which networks people have to be up to speed on for whatever happens to be needed. Much of that work will be done by the sector, so it is important that we work in collaboration with the sector to understand where technology is going and the latest technological developments. The higher and further education system is increasingly tuned into engaging with businesses to understand how we can work more closely together, and that system has the agility to be able to address and respond to those needs.

As you say, it is a multifaceted issue. Across a broad range of businesses, perhaps among small and medium-sized enterprises and in other sectors, there is a lack of even basic digital skills and awareness. Therefore, another part of the agenda is about bringing people up to a more basic level of skills.

We are moving forward on all those fronts at the same time. You are right that it is a complicated and ever-evolving challenge. Of course, it is not just Scotland that faces that challenge—everybody in the world faces it.