Seòmar agus comataidhean

In the past year, has the board been made aware of any disagreements at all, which are unrelated to policy and the direction of the bank?

Thank you very much for that.

When you spoke to the Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board in August 2021, according to the minutes, you said that “part of the role” of the SNIB

“is to solve the lack of private sector investment in certain projects.”

Your responses to Fiona Hyslop’s line of questioning on the same issue were very interesting. Since that meeting, which was six or seven months ago, have your fears been slightly allayed? Is putting the money in becoming more attractive to the private sector?

Yes.

That is helpful.

I have a final question. How often does the board meet?

Are those meetings minuted?

Thank you.

Was the board made aware of any concerns between the former chief executive and Scottish Enterprise?

On that theme, what do you feel that SNIB has to do in order to attract and help the private sector to become more engaged?

Mr Watt, from having met you before, I know that, when it comes to the very large sums of public money that the bank holds, you agree whole-heartedly that there should be full accountability and transparency about how the money is spent. In particular, you have said publicly and privately that the way that the public are made aware of the objectives of the bank and the direction of policy is extremely important. I want to be absolutely clear about whether, in the past year, the board was made aware of any disagreements between the then chief executive and Scottish Government ministers about the direction of policy or the objectives of the bank. If there were any disagreements, what were they?

I very much agree with that. There are issues for consumers. There is no question that changing systems in houses will be extremely expensive for the families involved—that will cost thousands of pounds. That is a huge issue for an awful lot of families.

However, there is also an issue for the producers. At the moment, because of the situation in Ukraine, which is likely to be quite long term, there is an incentive for them to continue to use some of the energy systems that are less effective in tackling climate change. That is unfortunate, but that is the easiest way to ensure that we have an energy mix. Do you foresee that that will lead to a problem with driving incentives on the renewables side?