The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 613 contributions
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Lorna Slater
I have one very quick question—
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Lorna Slater
No, I appreciated it, and your nice summing up at the end.
On the workforce, Petroineos says right on the front of its website that it makes a profit of $30 billion annually and has $6 billion in assets. There is an expectation that, with pockets that deep, the company has the capacity to support workers and the community. How are you meeting those obligations without expecting the public purse to pick up the pieces as the situation falls apart?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Lorna Slater
I, too, will start with project willow. I think that it is somewhat disingenuous to blame policies that were designed to reduce climate emissions for the current troubles. We are in a climate crisis. Global refinery capacity is going to decline, and older and less efficient refineries are of course going to be at risk. I note that you said in your opening remarks that you knew five years ago that this would need to be looked at.
Petroineos has put £1 billion into the refinery over the past 10 years and has not been able to make it a viable proposition, nor has it been able to start the transition to making it a low-carbon site, even though it identified that idea five years ago. What chance does project willow have of success? The Governments simply do not have the deep pockets that are required, so I have trouble believing that they are the factor that is suddenly going to make this work.
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Lorna Slater
Thank you very much for coming in today. I am very grateful for your work, especially on behalf of vulnerable people.
I notice that you have made a series of recommendations to public and private bodies, both substantial and small. I am particularly interested in your recommendation about reforming tariffs to Ofgem, which I would absolutely support. What is the pattern of take-up in that respect? Do you find that public bodies and Governments are more or less open than private bodies? How effectively are the recommendations taken up? Obviously, you are doing a lot of good work and are making excellent recommendations, but how far do they go?
Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 13 November 2024
Lorna Slater
Thank you.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 30 October 2024
Lorna Slater
Thank you for coming to see us this morning. I have some questions to help me to more fully understand the work that you do. The newest operational register, the register of persons holding a controlled interest in land, is such an important tool in allowing us to increase biodiversity, get to net zero, look out for community interests and manage deer and invasive species—all those good things. How complete was the register at its launch? What is its functional state? How useful is it as a tool for doing those things? How is it progressing and being improved?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 30 October 2024
Lorna Slater
It does. That is great.
I am interested in how things are working. I would like to better understand the process of moving a property from the sasine register to the land register. How complicated is it? What steps do you need to go through to make that happen? I completely understand the pragmatic approach in having the functional register—that makes total sense—but I would like to understand what challenges there are in moving between them.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 30 October 2024
Lorna Slater
Out of curiosity, are certain classifications of property typically more challenging, such as large estates, tenement flats or derelict land?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 30 October 2024
Lorna Slater
You are just over halfway in completing the register. Have you done the easy half—the low-hanging fruit—and is it the hard stuff that is left? I realise that what is left is land that is non-functional and less likely to transact, so it is low risk. Is completing the register not terribly urgent or difficult, with it just being ticked away at, or will completing it be really difficult? I am trying to understand the scale of the challenge.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 9 October 2024
Lorna Slater
With regard to the evidence that was used to determine those five things for the green industrial strategy, why did those things go in the prospectus, especially as two of them were not even part of the national strategy for economic transformation?