Seòmar agus comataidhean

That is helpful. I will move on to a linked issue. Cabinet secretary, you mentioned the clear context of the budget—the pandemic and the other issues that we are dealing with—and you have spoken about the support that is needed for businesses and the need to have excellence in what we do and not mediocrity across the board. You talked about the importance of making sure that people in our communities are ready for the labour market, but the labour market is not an end in itself; it is there to tackle some of the challenges and the structural inequalities that you mentioned will be included in the economic strategy.

Will you give us a little more information on how we can deliver the pace of change that we need around fair work and conditionality, not only in relation to fair work, but in relation to wellbeing as well? It could be argued that, if the economy does not create happy and healthy communities, it is failing on one measure. My question is about fair work, conditionality and the pace of change. Are we getting the balance right?

One of our concerns, as Fiona Hyslop has already mentioned, is the asymmetry of power as it applies to the balance between communities at a very local, if not regional, level. I appreciate what you say. It may be too early to identify examples of issues arising, but are you or your officials looking at a specific area of work to ensure that we do not lose very specific community-focused development opportunities that may not apply or relate to some of the broader principles and broader examples that would be done on a bigger geographical level?

That is helpful.

Thank you for what you have said so far and the information that you have provided, cabinet secretary. I have some questions about employability and skills. Will you give us an update on how the youth guarantee is going? How successful has it has been, particularly in reaching young people who have been dramatically impacted by the pandemic? How can we ensure that we continue to support young people, not only through the pandemic, but beyond it?

Thank you—that is helpful.

I will move on to a linked issue. I might have missed this, but one of the—perhaps many—gaps in the bill is that there does not seem to be any way of dealing with disputes. There is no investor and state dispute settlement equivalent or other interregional mechanism. Does Steve Fothergill have anything to say on that? How can we draw in voices to ensure that we get dispute mechanisms and a way of dealing with technical and strategic issues?

Thank you very much for that. I will leave it there, convener.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I will follow up the theme of consultation and explore a little bit more from your different perspectives not only what needs to be consulted on but who the key players should be. The Scottish Government has a clear interest; so, too, do local authorities. I want to bring in Steven Heddle, who said earlier that he wanted to respond to that point. In one of your earlier comments, you talked about co-production of the rules and guidelines. Can you unpick that a little bit and maybe give us a better understanding of exactly who the co-producing players should be? What must we do to ensure that rules and guidance are as clear as possible?

Thank you very much—that is really helpful. I know that David Bell wants to come in, and I am happy to hear from you. However, I also want to pick up on something that you said earlier, and maybe you can address that point as well.

In relation to Michelle Thomson’s questions on SNIB, you mentioned—Steven Heddle referred to this, too—strategic decisions around net zero ambitions. Will you tease out for us a little bit about what we need to do to ensure that we can get the legislation that we need: that is, legislation that is open and flexible enough to allow us to make the regional or local strategic decisions that we need to make around industrial strategy, never mind anything else?

Good morning and happy new year to everybody. I thank the witnesses for being with us this morning. I am sorry that we cannot meet in person.

As Pam Duncan-Glancy and Fulton MacGregor did, I express my solidarity with the miners, their families and the communities that were affected and which continue to be affected by what happened in the 1980s. I was not in the country at the time; I was growing up in Zimbabwe, but the strike permeated our media in southern Africa.

Like Fulton MacGregor, I think that the bill is long overdue and I look forward to supporting its progress through the Parliament over the next wee while. We have had quite a lot of discussion about the scope of its definition of “miner” and the constraints placed on which offences are included. I thank Jim Phillips for outlining some of his critiques of those constraints. We will return to them. I was going to explore them a bit further but they have been covered, so I will turn to justice issues.

Bob Young and Alex Bennett mentioned that they had been dismissed as strikers. Alex Bennett said in his opening remarks that he had been arrested. I ask them to describe for us their experience of the police and the justice system.

Thank you for that, Alex.

Bob, do you want to say something about justice and about how all of that was handled?