Seòmar agus comataidhean

Mr Berman, do you have any thoughts?

Thank you for those answers.

Good morning, Mr Bain and Mr Berman. We are talking about the review of the trade and co-operation agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom, and you have set out areas for the United Kingdom Government to try to address with the European Union. Could you set out any areas where you think the Scottish Government could help businesses to navigate the new arrangements, particularly in relation to emerging sectors such as fintech or the creative industries, whether that involves information, guidance, resourcing or the skills agenda more generally? I realise that many of the key issues are for the UK Government to seek to address, but where can the Scottish Government assist businesses that work in the services industry?

I know that you have called on the Scottish Government to reform the procurement environment to create a more sustainable home market that values design and designers. Has the Government indicated whether it is looking at reform or is likely to look at reform in the areas that you mentioned?

Mr Harvie referenced RIAS’s submission and the evidence about what more the Scottish Government could do. I want to ask you about that.

You have highlighted a lack of support from organisations such as Scottish Enterprise and Architecture and Design Scotland. Following the budget announcement yesterday, I understand that the latter faced yet another budget cut, making it £700,000 worse off in real terms than it was two years ago. Presumably, that will make it more difficult to provide that support. I also understand that the Government has frozen funding for a profile-raising exercise.

It is our role to look at the trading relationship between the UK and the EU and at how the Scottish Government will help the sector to navigate that. Does the Scottish Government recognise the severity of the issues that you have raised on behalf of Scottish architects? Have you engaged with it on the points that you have raised in your submission?

That is helpful to know. Thank you.

We have discussed a lot about the veterinary agreement in relation to trade in goods. I want to ask Ms Mackinnon about the impact of shortages of vets on domestic pets. Vets are highly skilled professionals and need to be properly remunerated for their specialist work. However, I have recently heard a number of examples of constituents facing what they regard as increasingly eye-watering vets bills. Are increasing charges something that you recognise as a general issue?

Again, I note that vets provide highly professional skilled work and should be renumerated properly. Did you say that the labour shortage is not the reason behind the rise in fees?

Good morning, convener. I understand that you want us to be brief—and I will happily be brief.

Although I am delighted to be at the committee, I am, to be frank, fed up with talking about this particular issue. However, I am not nearly as fed up as my constituents in West Scotland are about being failed by an utterly broken bus market.

I commend Ellie Harrison and the Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign for lodging the petition. As members will know, I represent the West Scotland region, including Renfrewshire, which last year saw a 13 per cent cut in bus services. That drastic cut that has had real consequences for people in West Scotland. Young people in Erskine are struggling to get to college; disabled residents in Gallowhill are being abandoned; there are veterans in Erskine without a nearby bus stop; national health service workers from Barrhead and Neilston are facing challenges in making it to their shifts at the Royal Alexandra hospital; and working mothers in Johnstone are finding it impossible to drop their kids off at school and get to work on time. In Foxbar, a dialysis patient is now having to make a daily taxi journey, because of early morning bus cuts. All the while, people in Glasgow and the west are paying among the highest bus fares anywhere in the UK.

Frankly, people have had enough, which is why you have so many MSPs in front of you this morning. Young people and older people alike are now asking what the point of a free bus pass is if there is no bus to get on. I focused on Renfrewshire, because I can offer that particular perspective, but the same stories are being replicated across Glasgow and the west.

Private bus operators clearly want to keep the status quo, but that is not an option; reform is long overdue and needs to be accelerated in the ways that the petitioner has put forward. Bus passengers in the west need and deserve change. The same franchising powers have been implemented in places such as Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds—and if it is good enough for those areas, it is certainly good enough for Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The process for putting local buses under local control should be accelerated, and transport authorities should be provided with the necessary resources and information to make that happen urgently. I welcome the petition.

I have nothing to add.

My second point was whether you think that the Scottish Government could have done more to explain those caveats. I think that an impression was created that we were going to align with EU law, and a lot of people expected a lot more alignment from the Scottish Government than there has been. Perhaps those important caveats, which I agree are sensible—this is not a criticism—about what is possible and meaningful have not been articulated to the public as well as they could have been.