Seòmar agus comataidhean

[Inaudible.]—actual announcement.

I am looking at documents that have been in the public domain for a very long time now. I will quote three important parts from the document of 8 October 2015, which is addressed to ministers and is a communication to them asking for their confirmation that they are satisfied and support the bid. It states:

“Procurement risk can rarely be removed entirely in complex contracts and CMAL have addressed this, taking their own legal advice, and in particular by agreeing contractual terms with FMEL which are broadly comparable with the tender specification.”

It also states:

“In the case of a challenge, CMAL would robustly defend their position on the basis of the legal advice they have received and the steps they have taken to bring the final contract clauses into broad comparability with the tender specification.”

That is an important point.

It also says:

“in discussions between Transport Scotland officials and CMAL Senior executives on Tuesday 29 September and on Friday 2 October, the CMAL Senior Executives made clear that CMAL would likely be facing similar problems no matter who the preferred tenderer was. Their Senior Executives also made the point that despite receiving stronger financial assurances in previous shipbuilding contracts they still subsequently faced problems, and in one instance significant challenges, during the respective construction phase.”

If I was a Scottish minister receiving that, I would say, “Okay, it has put in place mitigation that broadly covers the contractual tender that went out”. Would it be reasonable to give the nod on that basis? Nobody is denying that they gave the nod, but would it not be reasonable to take that into account?

I am looking at the information that ministers were receiving. They were being told that things were broadly comparable with the tender specification. Would they have a reason to challenge that?

Looking at the detail that has been put into the report and so on, we might sit round this table and agree, but ministers were receiving only those few papers, on which they were basing their decision.

From looking at the documentation, there is no doubt that ministers gave approval in some way. Basically, what is missing is the piece of paper that says that they did that. I do not think that anybody is disputing that that approval was given—at least, that is what I interpret from the documents. If I was a minister seeing that coming forward, I would be reassured in giving the decision that there was some sort of comparability with the tender specification. That is what the covering document says.

My questions are mainly about governance and succession, which, in the past, have been serious issues in NHS Highland. What progress have you made in your first round of succession plans? My understanding was that your first meeting on that would take place in December 2021.

At last we come to non-domestic rates.

What are your views on the non-domestic rates system? I would also like to hear about the benefits of the small business bonus scheme, which takes more than 100,000 businesses out of the rates system and supports them. Are reforms needed? If so, what would they look like?

Perhaps I can bring David Lonsdale in first.

I also want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the retail workers who worked so hard to support us during Covid.

It must have been three or four years ago now that our predecessor committee took evidence on a bill that was going through Parliament to support retail workers suffering harassment, mainly in convenience stores and so forth. Joanne Cairns has already touched on the issue of age-related harassment, but the idea was that strengthening support for retail workers in that way would reduce the harassment that they were encountering. How big an issue is this still? Has there been any improvement? I realise that the distortion of the Covid period might make it a wee bit difficult to tell, but has there been a reduction in harassment in the retail and hospitality sectors?

Has the legislation had any impact?

Bryan, would you like to comment on the situation in the hospitality sector?

Ruth Boyle, is there anything that the Scottish Government should do that it is not doing now to improve the situation in respect to harassment?