Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee has concerns about live issues to do with recruitment, and shortages of skills and labour, particularly in health and social care. Do you agree that this is not just a dry academic issue, but a very real issue that concerns the Scottish Government’s ability to recruit and retain highly skilled workers at the higher standards of the Scottish regulators?

Good morning—it is good to see everyone.

My first question is to ask for your assessment of the current economic situation facing Scotland—not just the immediate pressures, but what you see over the coming year and how you will reconcile the tension between your 10-year national strategy for economic transformation and a budget that has to deal with the short-term pressure that Scotland is facing immediately. I put that question to you first, cabinet secretary, but you may want to bring in Gary Gillespie.

My other question is about pressures on businesses and the support that they are telling you they will need over the coming year, in particular. Energy wholesale prices and other pressures will, as we have heard, impact on their ability to be successful. In relation to the employment pressures that we have just heard about, it will be a case of reskilling, upskilling and so on. What is your perspective on employability support in relation to skills, in the short term, as opposed to other business requests that we have had in recent years because of Covid, Brexit and other issues? Your comments on that would be helpful.

I would be interested in the minister’s response.

Scottish Canals has also done a lot of work on development in relation to flood management in Glasgow.

The policy will save young people cash and support behavioural change in order to tackle climate change and might provide sustainability for bus companies that otherwise might not have it. I know that, at the start of the pandemic, the Government moved rapidly to keep the companies afloat, but the issue of the finances involved needs a bit more detail. Given that the reimbursement rate will be a symptom of any success that we have in the first two policy elements that I highlighted, when are you expecting to review the scheme and assess its delivery against targets, and when will the committee get any report in that respect?

The minister said that the provision of bus services is a separate and distinct issue, but clearly there is an interrelationship between success in getting young people to use bus services and the availability of services. In a constituency such as mine, it is easy to travel by bus east to west but difficult to do so north to south. I go back to the point that Monica Lennon made about the sustainability of services and the fact that many people want to travel in the early evening. Is there an opportunity during the year—not waiting for the year to be over—to get in better alignment with local government and its provisions? The sweet spot is getting more young people on buses while also getting sustainability and improved services in rural and semi-rural areas, in the evening in particular.

Welcome to your Parliament and your parliamentary committee.

The Scotland’s Climate Assembly report was very clear and very direct, and it set out clear actions that are expected to be delivered. The Parliament debated it with cross-party support, as was indicated previously. You are in a very powerful position.

Will you explain the journey that people were on as part of the assembly? Some people will have come in at the start with particular views, but there was an evidence base, and there was a great deal of consideration and understanding—and then your ranking. Will you give us an indication of what issues you think shifted most during the course of the assembly’s work, so that we can get an idea of what we perhaps need to challenge most regarding people’s understanding and how we can achieve the behavioural change that the convener talked about?

I know that my colleagues will pick up on a number of the areas that Jocelyn Richard has highlighted.

My other question is about communities. The report makes the strong recommendation that we should

“Empower communities to ... develop localised solutions to tackle climate change.”

Jocelyn Richard or her assembly colleague might want to address that.

Jocelyn also talked about the importance of the process of learning and understanding for the assembly. Perhaps Liam Fowley would like to comment on progress on climate education for young people in particular.

I direct the question on communities to the assembly witnesses and the question on climate education to Liam Fowley. You can go first, Liam, as the camera is on you.

Before we hear from SEPA about its priorities, I have to say that I was really interested in your comment about turning concrete to green space, although my concern is about people turning green space to concrete in some areas.