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 2151 contributions
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 16 March 2022
Colin Beattie
Ah—both the Colins are handsome people.
Cabinet secretary, there has been some criticism that the strategy does not quantify the benefits that each project is expected to deliver or how it will directly link into the higher-level ambitions and the vision for the Scottish economy in 2032. How far will the delivery plans, which will be finalised in six months, go to flesh out the strategy?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 16 March 2022
Colin Beattie
As a matter of interest, will the recruitment process include the use of headhunters?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 16 March 2022
Colin Beattie
You highlighted a number of areas where there are constraints on what we can do, because of matters being reserved. Given our ambitions, is there any prospect that there are areas where the UK Government might support those ambitions and the vision that we have in Scotland?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 16 March 2022
Colin Beattie
I will not ask you to comment on individual projects or investments, but from the figures that I have, I cannot work out how much of the investments are equity investments in the business and how much is a loan. Of course, the intention always was that the bank would provide patient capital.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 16 March 2022
Colin Beattie
I have a slightly different question. In the past day or so, I saw a figure that showed unemployment in Scotland at 3.8 per cent. I seem to remember an economist saying that, when we get to 3 per cent, we are effectively at full employment. We have significant labour shortages in certain areas, but the strategy sets out our ambition for new start-ups, expansion of information technology capabilities and an increase in exports, all of which need labour. To what extent will our inability to control our borders with our own immigration policies impact on us? Where will we find the labour that we need in order to carry out all those new strategies?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 16 March 2022
Colin Beattie
I have one last question, which is about the performance of the investments. As I said at the start, it is fairly early days for the measurement of that, but do you feel that any of those investments are not performing? How are you measuring success? Is it by profitability, jobs or turnover?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 10 March 2022
Colin Beattie
If the Auditor General was able to ascertain that
“the Scottish Government lacked clear oversight of progress”,
why that happened must be evident and identifiable.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 10 March 2022
Colin Beattie
Let us leave that aspect for the moment. I will move on to clarity of direction, purpose and outcomes. How are the various parts of the Scottish Government collaborating to agree the strategic intent and intended outcomes for skills alignment?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 10 March 2022
Colin Beattie
I will continue with that theme. How does the Scottish Government plan to develop its letters of guidance to SDS and the SFC to reflect its expectations on how they should work together on skills alignment?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 10 March 2022
Colin Beattie
Fundamental to success is strong, consistent leadership and absolute clarity as to direction. After the enterprise and skills review of 2016, the Scottish Government, SDS and SFC all committed to skills alignment. However, the Scottish Government did not provide the necessary leadership to ensure progress. My simple question is: why? What happened to leadership? Why was the Scottish Government not driving this, as was clearly intended in 2016? Where did the leadership go?