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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 26 April 2025
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Displaying 1499 contributions

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Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)

Meeting date: 1 March 2023

Michelle Thomson

Thank you for that. I want to pick up on what Ronnie Palin said about the skills perspective. I know that a lot of work is going on to make sure that girls in particular can participate. Surely part of the just transition has to be that more than half the population has skin in the game. How do you ensure that women and girls are at the just transition party? What is the latest position on your active development of that?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)

Meeting date: 22 February 2023

Michelle Thomson

You have given me a lot of information. I know that other members want to come in, and I sense that Liz and perhaps Hisashi want to come in as well.

Thinking about the very important chemical cluster and SMEs around Grangemouth, how do we make this real for them? Part of the problem is that, although they are there, it might be difficult for them to get oven-ready, if you like, in order to be able to go on to procurement frameworks. It is about that linkage of working at both ends of the conundrum. The witnesses may want to pick up on some of the earlier themes, but I am interested in exploring that. Perhaps Liz wants to go first.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)

Meeting date: 22 February 2023

Michelle Thomson

I want to ask about targeting young people. I appreciate that the Forth Ports bid is at its very early stages, but I am interested in knowing more about how you will be able to drive down—if, indeed, you intend to do that—to actively target young people in job creation, which is another issue that Grangemouth, as a centre, struggles with.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)

Meeting date: 22 February 2023

Michelle Thomson

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending.

We have already alighted on a theme—from the inside looking out, particularly with reference to Grangemouth town. The people who live there often refer to the economy as a “DIDO economy”—drive in, drive out. That is the feeling.

Stuart, you have already touched on some of the active consideration that you gave to your bid, and I want to put some meat on the bones of that. When do you think that Grangemouth, as a community, will start to see some of the activity that has meaning to people there? I suppose that that also links in with what Liz was saying about frameworks for SMEs. A considerable amount of work is needed to change what is a good, thrusting sentiment about that involvement into actual meaningful engagement. I would appreciate some meat on the bones of that.

09:45  

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)

Meeting date: 22 February 2023

Michelle Thomson

Do you all feel, at this point—it is, obviously, very early days—that you have the right people contributing? Should anybody else be contributing? Do you think, “We really need to bring in this organisation or group to make sure that all their views are reflected.”? Have you been able to cover everything?

Tell me whether my assumption is correct. One of the concerns around freeports that are expressed generally is that they displace economic activity. From my point of view, the fact that so much in the bid is centred around Grangemouth means that that will not be the case, because a lot of the economic activity is already there. The bid is simply galvanising that and can only add to it.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)

Meeting date: 22 February 2023

Michelle Thomson

Is everyone who needs to be involved involved at this point, given that it is early doors?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Disability Employment Gap

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michelle Thomson

Yes—I was going to go on to that.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Disability Employment Gap

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michelle Thomson

One would expect the larger employers to have the resources, notwithstanding anything else, to be able to adapt. Nevertheless, around 99.3 per cent of our businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises. Have you given any specific consideration to how you might support them with guidance, beyond the broad principles of fair work?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Disability Employment Gap

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michelle Thomson

I will continue on data, which we have started to discuss. I would like to understand a bit more about your specific plans. I fully accept that there is complexity in the types of disability that you are talking about. We have some data, but data is at the heart of getting an accurate picture. Could you give me a flavour of what is happening? You have said that you are looking at that, but what exactly are you looking at? By what dates do you plan to reach conclusions, recommend new data collectors and so on? Do you have any further information about that?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Disability Employment Gap

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michelle Thomson

You are simply highlighting what I believe, which is that the situation is complex. It would be useful for the committee, and certainly for me, to understand a bit more deeply what you are planning. It becomes complex when we start to think about cross-cutting issues, and we know that there are various data sources.

Leading on from that, I note that a number of programmes are in place and we want to measure their success through various data collectors, of which we have some. We could, for example, introduce conditionality for grants and so on. It would be useful to understand more about that.

You mentioned culture, which is a fair point. That is linked to self-identification, about which people may, for very good reasons, be reluctant. As part of those plans, do you have anything else that looks at how you might support businesses to develop a culture of awareness and a culture of data collectors that you would potentially be able to support? That would be conditional on whether they were getting grants. That is another question about depth.