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The Federation of Small Businesses report that came out earlier this week highlighted the significant challenges. Some of the numbers in that are concerning. The vast majority of businesses—more than 90 per cent—are absolutely feeling significant pressure as a consequence of the situation. As we know, that is due to a range of factors. You have identified Brexit, and the Ukraine situation is obviously exacerbating the issues, including energy price rises, which have a knock-on effect across a range of commodities.

Some sectors are more robust than others. Some of the technology sectors and advanced manufacturing sectors are feeling the pressure, but not to the same extent as other sectors.

Some consumer-facing sectors such as retail, hospitality and leisure are finding the situation particularly difficult, and I engage with those sectors and others. It is true to say that a range of sectors have been impacted in different ways. Of course, for consumer-facing sectors, the issues relate not only to cost pressures, labour shortages and energy challenges but to potential downturns in demand as the cost pressures start to bite across the broader population, with people spending less money in those sectors. We work closely with such sectors to see what support we can provide.

We also work closely with the financial services sector. From its position, it has an overview of data across businesses and consumers, and we find that data very helping in informing our understanding of, and response to, the evolving situation.

Yes. It focuses on a range of sectors where we have identified that an opportunity exists. We are open to adding more programmes to the collection of programmes that are considered as part of that work, where it makes sense to do so, and I am open to agriculture programmes being part of that, although, as I say, many factors impact on the agriculture agenda, including climate change, financial support, land use, natural capital and biodiversity.

Oh! I had not even heard that. I was too focused on preparing for this meeting. Thank you for that information.

Absolutely. We will do that.

I ask Graeme Cook to pick up on the details of the data.

I will let Graeme Cook comment on that specific question in a moment, but you are right to say that international work is happening at European Union level and elsewhere on carbon mechanisms. There will always be a challenge as to how far you can go with that before you hit other restrictions that we have talked about, such as WTO procurement rules, but we are keen to move things forward, where we have the scope to do so.

Graeme, do you want to give some more detail on that?

Actually, I have had conversations with Scotland’s cement industry about what can be done.

Green cement is obviously a focus for the sector. It presents a huge investment and technical challenge, but we have had conversations with the sector on how we move forward with it.

We are conscious of the need to ensure that there is clarity on funding streams from Government and from agencies, that we align those and that we minimise any potential for confusion or clutter within that.

There is an action in the national strategy to look at business support and to understand where funds do similar jobs. That is to ensure that we have the right number of funds to deliver what we need and that we do not make the landscape any more cluttered than it needs to be.

However, it is important to recognise that different businesses are looking for different types of support for different challenges. We have focused on different challenges and opportunities in different sectors. To some extent, there will be a number of support mechanisms, but we are absolutely seized of the need to make that as simple as possible. We are doing that from a business perspective, so that businesses can navigate things more easily, and we are doing it from a public sector perspective, to make sure that things are as efficient as possible on delivery.

Dermot Rhatigan and others are working on a specific programme to streamline the funding streams, and I am happy to talk more about that if you would like me to go into more detail.

It very much is, and Alpha Solway did great work during and after the pandemic. We engaged very closely with it to understand the situation of the business. The reality is not that we are buying PPE from somewhere else in Scotland; we are just not buying any PPE. Everybody understands that. We are all sat here not wearing masks, but that would not have been the case six months or a year ago. The demand for PPE is just not there. Obviously, we are not going to use public money to buy a product that has a lifespan, put it on shelves and wait for it to expire when we do not need to do that. Demand is the issue.

The strategic long-term intent is clear, and a big part of the investment that Alpha Solway has made with Scottish public sector support has been in its melt-blowing facility, which allows it to vertically integrate back up the supply chain. That means that its supply chain is more resilient, that it does not need to rely on others for material supply and that the facility, with that significant investment, will be there for the future, so as and when PPE requirements increase again, conversations will take place and orders will start to flow again.

I am very clear that, if any parts of the public sector outside of our scope continue to purchase PPE from outside the Scottish supply chain, I would be interested in having a conversation with them. I have brought that to the attention of the rest of the Scottish public sector in writing, so that we can understand whether that is happening, but we have seen no evidence of that.

Graeme Cook, do you want to comment on any other procurement aspects?