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The National Mission Oversight Group met for the first time on 30 June 2022. The next meeting is scheduled for 22 September 2022. The Group will meet every three months and dates of meetings will be agreed in advance for the following year. The National Mission Steering Group will advise accordingly.

The National Mission Oversight Group is supported by many areas of expertise including; academics, lived and living experience representatives, international expertise, clinicians and third sector organisations

Three members of the group are specifically appointed as lived and living experience representatives, but we should not presume that other members of the Oversight Group do not have their own lived and living experience alongside their professional expertise and experience they are bringing to the group.

The Group will link in to lived and living experience networks such as the National Collaborative to ensure that the perspective and experiences of living and lived experience are embedded in the work of the Group.

Scottish Canals, as with all public bodies, is operating in an unprecedented challenging environment for public funds. Despite this, the Organisation has benefitted from significant increases in both its resource and capital Grant in Aid budget allocations in the last few years. Since 2019, the Scottish Government has increased the Organisation’s capital grant allocation by 87%.

In the last 2 years, and as a consequence of the significant increases in its capital budgets, Scottish Canals has managed to reduce its backlog of works by 20%. This has been achieved alongside significant Scottish Government support for unplanned events such as the Union Canal breach at Muiravonside in 2020. This highlights the importance of the Scottish Government’s support for Scottish Canals.

We continue to see Common Housing Registers as a key way of simplifying and maximising access to social housing. It is up to individual local authorities and housing associations to determine the most effective application process and allocation policy for allocating their housing stock. Guidance on Common Housing Registers can be found on the Scottish Government’s website: Common Housing Register (CHR) - building a register: a practitioner's guide - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . We have no plans to provide support to Glasgow City Council to expand their Common Housing Register which is a matter for them.

Following the first Oversight Group meeting in June, David Strang, former chair of the Drug Death Taskforce, has accepted my offer to become Chair of the group, ensuring its independence from government. I will of course continue to attend as a member of the group. This will begin from the next meeting scheduled for 22 September 2022.

To ensure independence from government, a steering board of members has been nominated to co-ordinate the agenda for Oversight Group meetings.

The Office for National Statistics confirmed Scottish Canals as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) effective from April 2020. Scottish Canals has a responsibility to ensure that it conducts its core business of maintaining and improving Scotland’s canal network and is resourced by the Scottish Government to do so. Since 2019, the Organisation’s capital Grant in Aid allocation has increased by 87% and this is enabling the Organisation to plan, progress and successfully complete projects of large scale as an NDPB.

Scottish Canals also retains the ability to operate commercially when appropriate and work is currently being undertaken by the Organisation to analyse the success of its investment activities in recent years. This analysis will be shared with the Scottish Government in due course alongside recommendations to Ministers on how the Organisation takes forward its investment activities as an NDPB.

Project Neptune was published on 8 September 2022 and can be accessed:

https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/strategic-framework-of-options-for-the-chfs-network-project-neptune/

We are committed to become a world leading, innovation nation, which will help us grow our economy and create sustainable, green jobs. As the recent figures from the UK Innovation Survey show, there is still work to be done.

That is why this year we will publish new innovation strategy which will ensure that our businesses, people and institutions are ready to meet the global economic challenges and opportunities we face over the next 10 years.

The Strategy will build on the support already available to businesses through our Enterprise Agencies, who since 2017 have distributed around £600m directly to businesses to build their capacity and capability to innovate, and initiatives such as the Digital Development Grant, which since September 2020 has invested almost £50m to over 5,600 SMEs to help them utilise digital technologies and enhance workforce skills.

Since 2007 Scotland’s business R&D expenditure has doubled, whereas the comparable figure for the UK as a whole was only 29% growth over the same period.

We recently commissioned The Scottish Council for Development and Industry to undertake research on the specific barriers to innovation faced by Scottish businesses. The findings from the report, together with our engagement with industry and key stakeholders, will inform a reformed package of support within the Strategy to ensure our businesses realise their innovative potential.

While employment law remains reserved to the UK Government, we will use our Fair Work policy to promote fairer work practices across the labour market in Scotland, including within the renewable energy sector.

We have concluded a public consultation on the action needed for Scotland to become a leading Fair Work nation by 2025. We will publish a refreshed Fair Work Action Plan this year, incorporating the views from our public consultation, and focusing on minority ethnic and disabled people’s employment and the gender pay gap.

Fair Work is a key driver for achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth and a wellbeing economy. Through our flagship Fair Work First policy we are using the Scottish Government’s financial powers to drive fair work practices and achieve our ambition for Scotland to be a leading Fair Work Nation by 2025.

Through the landmark Bute House Agreement, we will strengthen Fair Work conditionality. We will introduce a requirement on public sector grants recipients to pay at least the real Living Wage to all employees and to provide appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice, such as trade union recognition, subject to limits on devolved competence.

In the National Strategy for Economic Transformation we have also committed to work with employers and trade unions in sectors where low pay and precarious work can be most prevalent to deliver sectoral Fair Work agreements, that deliver payment of the real living wage, better security of work, and wider "Fair Work First" standards.

Trade unions are key partners in delivering our economic and social aspirations. We will continue to promote strong trade unions and collective bargaining arrangements in all sectors, including the renewable energy sector. We have made a clear commitment to promote collective bargaining through the inclusion of an employee voice indicator, measured by collective bargaining coverage, within the National Performance Framework.

We also work closely with Scottish Renewables, the trade body for Scotland’s renewable energy industry.

Scottish Renewables played an active role in the development of the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) which explores issues such as skills development and staff retention in many industries including Energy. Through CESAP’s Implementation Steering Group we engage with both employers and their workforce as they move through the just transition to net zero. We will continue to engage with partners to deliver the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) and will move forward with improvements to the Green Jobs Workforce Academy.