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So, you welcome the consolidation of those two elements under one minister.

I have some detailed questions about the ESSB. You state in the report that the board

“lacks the authority to hold the skills agencies to account, limiting its ability to support progress by SDS and the SFC on skills alignment.”

Why has that been the case? To what extent has the lack of authority contributed to the lack of progress?

It looks as though the ransomware attack was quite carefully timed, coming as it did at midnight on Christmas eve. We are aware from the report that the staff member who was responsible was unable to contact any member of senior management to escalate the issue. Have you explored whether SEPA now has in place contingency plans to ensure that, should such a situation arise again, that channel of communication will be open and available?

I will ask briefly about the five-stage model and the move to a three-stage or three-strand model.

It strikes me that we have a vehicle that is going in the wrong direction. We have lifted the bonnet and seen that it is overly complex and difficult to maintain and repair and we do not know what component affects what outcome. As I understand it, three pilot projects were undertaken to assess the five-stage model: in early learning and childcare, in financial and professional services and in the Glasgow College region. It seems that the early learning and childcare pilot yielded some positive results. What factors contributed to the success of that pilot and what lessons were learned from it?

Paragraph 1 of your report mentions the skills gaps and the effects that they will have on Scotland’s labour market and, ultimately, its economy. We see those effects in the form of two costs. There are costs today, as we see in, for example, social care—your recent report identified the crisis in care and the costs that not providing preventative care causes at the other end of the spectrum. You also identify, in relation to digital and the climate emergency, a huge economic opportunity cost in not having the skills to meet the future demand in those sectors.

What confidence do you have that the Scottish Government and its partners are satisfactorily addressing the skills gaps of today and the future?

I have one final question, on funding. Paragraph 14 states that in October 2019, the Scottish Government

“instructed SDS and the SFC to implement a new model for funding and delivering foundation apprenticeships ... and graduate apprenticeships”.

Those are two fundamental elements of what we are talking about, but your report raises concerns that sustainable funding for those two areas is still uncertain. Why has the Government not been able to provide clarity on where that funding will come from?

With regard to lessons learned, the emergency management team identified 103 projects that were to be undertaken as part of the recovery plan and were due to be completed by June 2021. Have you assessed whether all 103 projects have been completed?

Good morning. The report examines the impact of Covid-19 on HMRC compliance activities. It says:

“COVID-19 has continued to have an impact on HMRC’s compliance and debt management activities. Across the UK, there were 29% fewer civil compliance cases opened and 26% fewer cases closed in 2020-21 than in 2019-20”.

Can you give us a snapshot of why that is? Is it because internal processes in HMRC have been impacted by Covid—for example, due to people working from home, which means that there is less capacity—or is it because the outside world has become more complex because of the pandemic?

People who struggled to pay tax during that period are now paying their present tax and have therefore almost forgotten about that period, which may impede the recovery of that tax. Do you have a concern that, in capacity terms, HMRC will be so busy in its forward-looking work that it may end up not fully delving into that period retrospectively?

We talked about a separate analysis of Scottish compliance and how the effort and cost would perhaps be too great to do that. Do you have any insight as to whether there are plans to make available an analysis of Scottish income tax debt? Is such work being undertaken, and would the Scottish Government, HMRC or yourselves benefit from that?