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No, the power has not been used so far. From the conversations that I have had, I am not aware that there are any particular potential barriers that inhibit local authorities from using it. However, officials might have something to add on that point.

I think so. As I said, I have not been made aware that there is an issue at the moment. I presume that, by their nature and through the 2018 act, island authorities are aware that the power exists—I would like to think so, anyway. I am not aware that they perceive any barriers in relation to using the power.

Absolutely—you are right about that.

It is interesting and exciting to hear about the work that is happening on Jura, and I would be interested to find out more about it. I completely understand your point that, in small communities in particular, there can be volunteer fatigue and the same people sometimes do a lot of the work. If there is anything that we can do to support communities and the initiatives that are under way on Jura, I am more than happy to take that away and look at it. You have outlined an exciting development.

I am absolutely open to considering that. Obviously, I want to listen to island communities as we develop proposals. One of our key commitments is to develop a remote, rural and islands housing action plan. I cannot yet give a definitive date when that will be published—it is led by my Cabinet colleague Shona Robison—but that will be critical in trying to address some of the issues.

You talked about travelling around the islands. Whenever I am out in our rural and island communities, housing is raised as being critical to the ability to retain young working-age people in a community. It is not always a case of a lack of jobs. There can be job opportunities but the ability to house people is frequently raised as a critical issue.

I believe that engagement work in relation to the action plan has commenced but I would be more than happy to feed back the information that you give to ensure that it is part of the process, too. There will be extensive engagement with our island communities so that they can be part of it.

It has had a massive impact on all the areas in my portfolio, so I see it at first hand and hear it in my engagement with different communities and businesses. As you outlined, a lot of the industries on our islands have been those most adversely affected, which means it probably disproportionately affects our islands more than other areas.

Tourism was affected by the impact of Covid but also by the critical labour shortages right across the piece. Those shortages in tourism itself and right through our food and drink businesses have also meant that those sectors have really struggled and are continuing to struggle. Those shortages are because of losing the free movement of people and the additional barriers to businesses in trading with the EU, which have made it a lot more difficult because of the added layers of bureaucracy and the extra costs that businesses have to incur. All of that has undoubtedly had a huge impact across the food and drink industries, of which there are a lot in our rural and island communities.

We have seen escalating costs for a while, and that is getting worse rather than better. It has had a disproportionate effect on our island communities because there are extra costs for transport to get the materials to islands before projects can even begin. That means that our islands already have an extra financial burden that areas on the mainland do not, so increased costs are a problem.

That is a really important point and something that we need to consider. Especially now that more people are working from home, we want to encourage people to embrace hybrid working as well.

I do not know whether there is a specific strand of work on-going in relation to that at the moment. Erica Clarkson can come in on that.

I will have to turn to officials on that. I am not sure exactly what stage that work is at.

We are certainly planning for that to be the case. Obviously, technology is changing all the time and it is really important that whatever infrastructure we put in place is, in essence, future proofed and can deal with any changes or upgrades that there may be in the future. It is important that we made that extra investment to ensure that we reach as many areas as we possibly can. That is where that extra investment has been absolutely critical.

I do not have figures on that. I do not know whether the team would be able to answer that question, but I would be happy to come back to the committee with more information.