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Far be it from me to criticise the minister with responsibility for that policy area. I think that what the Minister for Transport said stands, but I will ask Andy Park to comment more specifically on the projects.

As I have indicated, the matter is outside my portfolio, and I do not want to comment on it without having the full information. The Minister for Transport has commented on it, and I will invite her to respond to your specific questions. I will do that as a matter of course following the meeting. If you want to put a request in writing, I am sure that she will be delighted to answer your questions.

Absolutely. Specifically on ScotWind, there are a number of parts to that. The big international players absolutely understand that and they are dealing with it. Their investment decisions on what they will make in Scotland and what they will make elsewhere are driven by a number of factors. I have given them reassurance and as much clarity as we can, given that it is a complicated scenario that has a lot of moving parts—consenting, planning, grid connections and a range of other things all have an impact, in addition to the supply chain and energy aspects.

Many businesses, including at least 80 per cent of businesses in the oil and gas sector, are moving into the renewable energy supply chain. We are working closely with them to give them information, provide the technology and connect them into the network, so that they can take advantage of that. We are also supporting other businesses and sectors to move into the area.

It is a complicated piece of work. You are right that, in some cases, businesses will have to make investment decisions in advance of knowing what will happen. The work that we and the enterprise agencies are doing supports that. The Scottish National Investment Bank is providing support in some cases, too. It is working with private sector investors. We are keen to make sure that, where there is a gap and something needs to be done to ensure that the supply chain is robust and ready, we are engaged at a detailed level to make that happen.

We work on that together. Yesterday evening, we had a call on that specific issue and about how we align the work of the public sector to support that. Michael leads on the energy side, and I pick up things on the supply chain side.

I would be delighted to do that.

That is a good question. With regard to conditionality, we have been explicit about the net zero aspects, payment of the real living wage and the fair work agenda. That was an important success that we secured in the programme. It was great to see the bids that came forward. Without giving anything away, I can say that they were all very focused on those aspects and were seized of the need for that to be a critical part of their offer. I think that we are starting from a good place in that respect.

More broadly, on women-led businesses and other areas where we have an agenda to move forward on entrepreneurship by tackling diversity and inclusion challenges, although that is not explicit in the green free port requirements, we continue to take forward that agenda across a range of economic activity.

My colleague Neil Gray is progressing work on wider international immigration to do what we can within the constraints of the very restrictive immigration system that the UK Government has put in place. That work forms part of the activity on the talent attraction and migration service.

I lead a group that is focused on attracting talent to Scotland from the rest of the UK. Scotland is a very attractive proposition. A net average of about 8,000 people per year come to Scotland—on an annual basis, about 8,000 more people come to work in Scotland than go in the opposite direction. We believe that we can increase that number significantly and attract more talent to come north by positioning Scotland within labour markets in the rest of the UK. We are working on that programme with a cross-industry body that represents a range of sectors that we believe have the opportunity to offer very attractive employment opportunities for talent from the rest of the UK. That work is well developed. The group has had three or four meetings, and we are pulling together various workstreams.

That is a great example of co-production with business and industry. We are starting from a very positive place, but we can build on that by adding many more thousands to that number and, by doing so, we can help to address at least some of the skills and talent challenges in the Scottish economy.

Thank you very much, convener, and thank you for allowing me to bring a number of officials. It is great to be back. As you will appreciate, the issues that are covered in the comprehensive piece of work that we will discuss are quite extensive.

Since my previous appearance in January and my formal response to the committee’s report in July, which you mentioned, the global economic outlook has, of course, weakened considerably. As the Deputy First Minister noted last week in “Emergency Budget Review 2022-23”:

“The whole world is facing a period of substantial economic turmoil ... Rising prices, soaring energy bills, and the resulting increased financial pressure on public services are not unique to the UK.

However, the UK Government—as a result of Brexit, inaction over the summer and the catastrophic decision to announce unfunded tax cuts for the wealthiest—has made the situation in the UK significantly worse.”

Against that backdrop, we have regularly engaged with businesses and business organisations. It is vital that we take all action within our power to support our businesses through these difficult times.

“Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation” was published in March and, last month, we published delivery plans for the strategy’s programmes. Those five strategic programmes remain right for the country, and our delivery-focused sixth programme builds the team Scotland response that we need to deliver change.

As we set out in the programme for government in September, we are prioritising and accelerating actions where we can to help people and businesses through the current economic crisis. In tandem with that, through the national strategy, we are continuing to build for the long term to strengthen our economic resilience, including in supply chains, nationally and internationally.

The committee’s report is wide ranging. It covers the themes of people, place and product, and the Scottish Government’s response sets out actions that we are taking across a range of policy areas.

Skills is a prominent theme in the committee’s report. The national strategy’s skilled workforce programme recognises the importance of national and regional skills planning to address skills gaps and shortages, and to ensure that we have a pipeline of skilled workers to meet the needs of a green economy.

We are already taking action to improve our approach to aligning skills provision with employer needs through the shared outcomes framework, and we expect the recommendations from the independent inquiry into the skills delivery landscape next spring.

We have also undertaken evaluations of the flexible workforce development fund and individual training accounts, and we expect to publish those reports this year.

To expand Scotland’s available talent pool, we have committed to launch a talent attraction and migration service in 2023, and I am engaging with industry to develop a talent attraction programme for the rest of the United Kingdom.

The national strategy aims to position Scotland to maximise the greatest economic opportunities of the next 10 years. We are at the forefront of delivering a just transition to net zero by 2045, with an ambitious interim target of a 75 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030.

In relation to ScotWind, supply chain development statements set out developers’ commitments for supply chain content, and we have been clear with developers about our expectation of what must be delivered. I welcome the collective commitment that has been made to invest an average projected £1.4 billion per project in Scotland. That equates to more than £28 billion across the 20 ScotWind projects.

We know that the manufacturing sector will be central to the successful delivery of the national strategy. The sector’s transition to low-carbon manufacturing will generate new well-paid jobs, and the wide reach of the new National Manufacturing Institute Scotland will help to boost manufacturing research, development and innovation across the country.

Since the publication of the national strategy, we have launched the £25?million low-carbon manufacturing challenge fund, which is designed to build on Scotland’s existing expertise and encourage partnerships to come forward with bids that will encourage the adoption or development of low-carbon technologies or processes.

We are using the levers at our disposal to maximise the social, economic and environmental impacts of public procurement in Scotland. In the 2021-22 financial year, 74 per cent of just under 19,000 suppliers that were awarded public sector contracts across Scotland had registered on our systems with a Scotland-based business address.

In October 2020, we published guidance on supply chain resilience and diversity, and reminded public bodies of practical steps that should be taken to support supply chains and help to reduce the risk of disruption to supplies caused by supply chain vulnerabilities and surges in demand.

Robust and resilient supply chains are the bedrock of a thriving economy. We must take every opportunity to continue to strengthen Scotland’s supply chains.

I look forward to our discussion.

Not only is there a focus on that, with work being undertaken, but we are actually delivering results. Possibly for the first time—certainly for the first time in quite a while—Scotland’s economic inactivity rate is lower than that of the United Kingdom as a whole. In Scotland, the number of economically inactive people reduced by 20,000 over the most recent period, while in the rest of the UK it increased by 220,000. That means that Scotland now has not only the lowest unemployment rate in the UK but a lower economic inactivity rate than there is in the rest of the UK, and we also have a higher employment rate than the rest of the UK.

We are still at an early stage of the work, but we are seeing results from it. I have no doubt that, as the rest of the programme rolls out, we will continue to make a positive impact on those numbers and increase the indigenous supply of labour to Scottish businesses.

On your specific question about the input side, the prioritisation of resources across the emergency budget review had to take into account a wide range of factors. Some £82 million is being spent on employability support as we move forward. As we are in a position in which a tight labour market is in play, we need to understand where best to divert resources to in order to support labour supply and provide support for businesses and, more widely, across society, at a time when it is hard for many individuals, families and communities to keep their heads above water, given the cost pressures that exist.

We have a programme in place, and the national strategy is driving that forward. Details of that were published in the project plans at the end of last month. We are already delivering results in that area.

The biggest reasons why businesses cannot get people to fill vacancies are immigration policy and Brexit. That is absolutely clear. In that context, we are doing everything that we can to support businesses.

Of course, bringing more people into the labour market will push the numbers in the right direction, but I point to data that allows us to compare and contrast Scotland’s performance with that of the rest of the UK, which shows that we are more successful. Our labour market inactivity numbers are going in the right direction, while those in the rest of the UK are going in the other direction, and we believe that that is a consequence of the work that we have done in areas such as childcare support and employability support to help get into the labour market individuals who otherwise would not have been able to do so.

A wide range of factors impact what is quite a wide and varied cohort within that 21.6 per cent of people in the 16 to 25-year-old age group who are still economically inactive. We continue to address those issues. As I have already indicated, £82 million is being spent on employability support.

With regard to all of the budget calls that we hear, of course, everybody can say that they want more money for everything but, as you know, because the Scottish Government does not have borrowing powers, due to the current constitutional settlement, we have to run a balanced budget, unlike the UK Government, obviously, and that puts constraints on what we can do. Decisions have to be made and I think that we have made the right decision. We are getting results and we are continuing to invest significantly in employment.