Seòmar agus comataidhean

You should be looking to Mr Logan to deliver progress on the shift to greater technology opportunities and to contribute towards encouragement and expansion of entrepreneurial activity within the Scottish economy. Some of that is relevant to the points that we discussed earlier with regard to the Ana Stewart review and in response to other questions.

He has some limited staff support to assist him in the work and arrange his practical interaction and engagement within Government and with the tech and entrepreneurial communities in Scotland.

I remain open to such questions. The design of the model, with its significant dependence on technology capabilities, means that location should not be in any way a barrier to people benefiting from the resources of the Techscalers.

An important question arises about the ability of other bodies and institutions to support the direction of travel. Our universities and colleges, which have an extensive network of premises throughout the country, should be able to play a part in working with the Techscalers and ensuring that their attributes can be used more broadly around the country.

Perhaps my turn of phrase was not well chosen. My point is that social enterprises should be on the radar of our enterprise agencies and should not be thought of as being someone else’s responsibility.

I am grateful for the opportunity to set out my thinking more clearly.

In setting out the budget, I concentrated on three themes: the elimination of child poverty, sustainable public services and the economic transition to net zero. That gives the best distillation of the policy framework in which we are operating, where there is an absolute necessity to make the journey to achieving net zero.

We assess our performance regularly, and we have been on the receiving end of a particularly challenging recent assessment from the Climate Change Committee about the effectiveness of our current arrangements. The plans that the Government is making are designed to advance that agenda to the greatest possible extent.

I acknowledge and accept the challenge that Maggie Chapman puts to me, but it is best reflected in how we take forward the wider policy agenda to which I have referred.

It will be helpful for the Government to understand the committee’s deliberations on that question. It is clear from the labour market data that was published yesterday that we find ourselves in a position in which employment is at a record high and unemployment is very low, at 3.3 per cent. Despite the fact that we are experiencing enormous volatility in economic conditions, employment remains very high and unemployment very low.

I have a couple of observations to make about that. First, that situation might not be sustained, because a lot of economic turbulence is coming our way. Secondly, we must be mindful of the importance that NSET attaches to increasing the value of employment. That is a major consideration in the approach to employment support, employability and economic development that we take as part of our wider programme.

We will see it in the data that informs the material in the national performance framework. Provided that the framework is delivering the right strategic perspective across the whole economy and the whole of society, and that we have that correct—again, I stress that it is being consulted on by the Government and that Parliament has been extensively engaged in that endeavour—we should see that in the data that emerges during the process.

Good morning. I welcome the opportunity to give evidence on the Scottish Government’s draft budget for 2023-24 and the delivery plans for the national strategy for economic transformation. If it is acceptable, convener, I will make opening remarks that cover both those areas.

The national strategy and the budget support our long-term aims and ambitions for transformation to a stronger, fairer and greener economy and, in the short term, although our levers are limited, they provide immediate support for our businesses through the current cost crisis. That crisis continues to present a significant challenge. The latest inflation figures, which were published this morning and cover December 2022, show that inflation remains very high, at 10.5 per cent.

When facing some of the most turbulent economic and financial conditions that most people can remember, the Scottish Government has had the difficult task of providing as much support as possible while our budget is lower in real terms than it was in 2021. That means having to make difficult choices in the coming financial year. We have chosen to concentrate our efforts on eradicating child poverty, providing sustainable public services and transforming the economy to deliver a just transition to net zero. The national strategy provides the right foundations on which to transform our economy and helps to secure better outcomes as we emerge from these difficult conditions.

In setting the budget and developing the NSET delivery plans, we have firmly prioritised the actions that will give us maximum return on our strategic objectives. In the coming financial year, we will introduce measures to boost entrepreneurship and productivity across sectors and regions, and to invest in our infrastructure.

We are committing to funding the transition to net zero not only to meet our climate change targets but because it will help us to realise our long-term economic ambitions, which will bring investment, jobs and growth.

The skills and employability aspects of NSET are also being supported so that more people can access more job opportunities now and in the future, which will help some of the most vulnerable in our society into employment and improve their wellbeing.

We have consulted the public, private and third sectors throughout the development of NSET, and we will continue to work in partnership with them as we push forward with delivery.

I appreciate the committee’s pre-budget scrutiny and report. As well as being given the opportunity to respond to that, I look forward to discussing with the committee some of the points that I have outlined.

Obviously, we take a range of steps to try to enhance productivity. A lot of what we do is associated with, for example, investment that we make through the university research channel. Our universities have responded positively over a number of years to our appeal to them to engage more closely with the wider business community to collaborate on business and economic research. We are now seeing much higher levels of collaboration and co-operation, which will in part help us to answer the question on productivity.

Our wider investment in skills is designed to do likewise. Obviously, we are operating in an incredibly tight labour market, which is putting additional pressures on the work that we can undertake to ensure that the needs of the business community are properly and fully reflected in the support that we make available to ensure that businesses have access to the productive skills that they require. However, I acknowledge that that is an on-going and significant challenge that we have to face.

Work on the four-day working week pilot is being undertaken under the budget lines on fair work. We will take forward work on the four-day working week pilot as part of the 2023-24 programme. That will obviously be part of the wider agenda of improving the productive capacity of the Scottish economy, on which the national strategy is focused.