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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 3 April 2025
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Displaying 1489 contributions

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Finance and Public Administration Committee

Public Service Reform Programme

Meeting date: 27 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us.

I will come to Robert Emmott first, as he is the only person to have mentioned AI thus far. Such is the exponential growth in the use of AI that change in that respect is likely to be foisted on the councils and, indeed, the Scottish Government. Given that we know that, what active consideration have you given thus far to how AI can assist public sector reform and, indeed, the general provision of your services?

I appreciate that it will be a slightly different question for Malcolm Burr, so, as I have said, I will come to Robert Emmott first. After all, Dundee is home to Abertay University, which is a leading light in the field. Can you give us a flavour of that, Robert?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scottish National Investment Bank

Meeting date: 21 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Good morning. I want to explore three areas. The first is the equitability of the contribution of women, which is almost becoming a personal mission for me, having spent many years in various business roles and being up against all the barriers that we know about. As is my wont, I had a quick look at the bank’s distribution. I see that 42 per cent of board members, 33 per cent of executives and 28 per cent of investment leads are women. I do not know what the overall staff ratio is; perhaps you could enlighten me on that. What specific plans do you have to make things fair in that regard and to lead by example?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scottish National Investment Bank

Meeting date: 21 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Does that mean that you are as aware of these stats as I am and that you have internal targets to improve them so that you can see the positive outcomes of your encouragement?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scottish National Investment Bank

Meeting date: 21 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

I am sorry to interrupt, but would it be possible for you to send us those statistics so that we can monitor the situation regularly?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scottish National Investment Bank

Meeting date: 21 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

I will come on to that. I am sorry to interrupt, but I want to square off my first question about your specific plans to get to equitability. I absolutely understand that the whole infrastructure of the financial sector has traditionally been heavily weighted in a certain way, but I imagine that you have a leadership role that means that you can effect positive change, given your guiding mission. Do you have specific plans to get to equitability, and, if so, over what timeframe do you plan to get there? I am happy for you to write to the committee if you do not have all that information available just now.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scottish National Investment Bank

Meeting date: 21 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

I look forward to hearing more about that. I am happy for you to write to the committee, given that Al Denholm is new to his post, but I gently give you notice that I will ask exactly the same questions this time next year.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scottish National Investment Bank

Meeting date: 21 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

When you are in front of us next year, will you therefore be able to provide input data and say, “We were there; now we are here”, confident in the knowledge that I will ask about it?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scottish National Investment Bank

Meeting date: 21 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Excellent.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scottish National Investment Bank

Meeting date: 21 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

Thank you very much.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Scottish National Investment Bank

Meeting date: 21 June 2023

Michelle Thomson

I will move on. I had a look at your interim equalities report, and I can see that there is still quite a gender gap in relation to the projects that are mentioned—the pay gap is 18.2 per cent compared with an average of 12.2 per cent. There is therefore still some way to go in relation to your projects. Only 13 per cent of board members across your portfolio of projects are women, which is well below the average. Are you applying any conditionality to projects in relation to equal representation? If not, why not? How will you break down those barriers in the wider environment?