Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, everybody.

Thank you for setting out so clearly the accountabilities that you will specifically respond to the committee on. In that respect, I also put on record my surprise that Leslie Evans did not want to appear to talk about her accountabilities, which broadly mirror what you have set out.

My opening question is this: what assessment have you made of the potential for a conflict of interests between the Scottish and Westminster Governments?

You have identified where there are different perspectives and so on, and you have alluded to processes that might sort that out, but my question is about your assessment of the potential for conflicts of interest. Do you have any formal policy for addressing such conflicts? For example, a lawyer will have a clear policy for addressing them. You are telling me how you will manage things, rather than giving me your assessment of the potential for conflicts of interest and your specific policy therein. Do you have one?

Earlier, you talked about Roosevelt and the first 100 days—it is often quoted. In the first 100 days, you have done some things and we have talked about the strategy on external affairs and relentless focus on outcome. As a broad overview, what do you see as the key challenges in your role as permanent secretary? I do not mean in reporting to ministers; I mean organisationally. A fresh perspective is good. What do you see as your key opportunities?

My closing remark is that I am a bit surprised that you have not included more around organisational challenges. Someone brought up silo working, culture, risk appetite, innovation, use of technology and so on. I am conscious of time, but will you briefly tell me whether you will be writing an overarching strategy paper? What you are describing is operational, but I am talking about systemic, organisational change. Many of those challenges are inherent in business organisations and in public sector organisations, particularly the use of artificial intelligence. Do you produce something like that in your role as permanent secretary?

Good morning and thank you very much for attending. I agree that your CV is remarkable; indeed, when I was preparing for today, I wanted to go away and read a lot of your articles, but I simply did not have time.

I have a few questions. What time commitment are you able to give to the role and what challenges do you see to that time commitment?

I am on the record as expressing my frustration that quite a lot of people have a fundamental lack of knowledge about macroeconomic policy. The focus tends to be, particularly from a scrutiny perspective, on what we need to count and account for. How will you be able to use your extensive knowledge—this goes back to John Mason’s point—to create more general knowledge among the populace about the importance of macroeconomic frameworks and policy, and knowledge that, as Dr Lombardi said, our current policy levers can address only some of that? How can you help to heighten and broaden the thinking among the Scottish populace, not least among those in the Scottish Parliament?

Thank you.

You have been very clear and have given a huge amount of information. Can I assume that everything that you have said is more than applicable to retail and hospitality which, arguably, as a sector, is symptomatic of all the issues, both in systemic terms and policy terms, that you outline?

This is my last wee question because I am aware of the time and the convener is giving me a warning look. I think that everything that you have said applies to retail and hospitality many times over. For the record, can you confirm that?

I suppose that fiscal drag is going to kick in as well. I am probing whether we have considered that enough in the visioning that we do on town centres. I agree with what you have said about multi-unit flexibility, a move away from full repairing and insuring leases and so on, but there is a cost associated with that flexibility for retailers. Quite often, the business model that they choose to adopt is to target a certain sector or socioeconomic profile. I am trying to join the dots between the complexity of that and the cost, because that represents a risk for retailers when we have these challenges for certain sectors of our society.

There always seems to be a bit of serendipity when I am last to ask a question, as a panellist inevitably leads on to the area that I want to explore. David Lonsdale has just done so this time.

David, this question is for you and perhaps Martin Newman. Having listened to the discussion, I have been struck by the many different areas where we have touched on the wider economic macroenvironment, which, as we are aware, is facing significant challenges.

I read a paper on the KPMG/Ipsos Retail Think Tank website that quotes Ruth Gregory and discusses the level of consumer debt and how much it rose in quarter 1 of this year. I will perhaps put my question to David Lonsdale and Martin Newman initially, but other panellists may also wish to comment. Have we reflected the challenges for consumers enough in the terms of reference and scope of our inquiry, given what we have heard about the energy crisis, the cost of living crisis, Brexit starting to hit home, wage depression and so on? It is all very well to have grand ideas and reflect on business owners but, if consumers do not have money to spend, we need to factor that in as well.

I see Martin nodding. Perhaps he would like to comment first, as the paper that I mentioned is on his website.