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Ministers and officials meet regularly with ratepayers and representatives from various sectors to discuss business rates, including airports. Minutes are not routinely produced, especially where commercially sensitive information may be discussed.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-08230 on 22 March 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Ministers meet regularly with ratepayers, trade bodies, business organisations, Assessors and other stakeholders to discuss business rates and the impact of the 2017 revaluation.

As a result, a package of measures was introduced to support businesses in 2017-18 which included a reduction in the poundage of 3.7%; an increase in the rateable value threshold that the large business supplement becomes payable from £35,000 to £51,000; an expansion of the Small Business Bonus Scheme to remove business rates from an estimated 100,000 premises; a 12.5% cap on bill rises for pubs, hotels, restaurants and cafes and offices in Aberdeen City and Shire.

No Regional Selective Assistance or other financial support has been provided by the Scottish Government or Scottish Enterprise (SE), to Greggs plc for its Scottish sites in the last five years. However, SE officials have offered support through the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service and SE's Account Management service.

An offer of Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) support to Greggs PLC headquarters has been made to assist any affected employees at the Clydesmill site. At the time of writing, the formal consultation period has not yet commenced and the PACE offer has not been taken forward. The company is still in discussion with its employees and the impact on the workforce of any potential compulsory redundancies has therefore not yet been confirmed.

Following the announcement of the proposed closure of the Loanhead bakery, the Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism spoke with Greggs' Company Secretary on 3 March 2016, along with Scottish Development International (SDI) and Scottish Government officials, to explore all possible support for the Loanhead site.

SDI subsequently met with Greggs on 11 March 2016 to discuss the proposed closure of the Loanhead bakery and had a further call with the company on 13 May 2016 to further explore areas of potential support for Loanhead, and the company’s plans for the proposed centre of excellence at the Clydesmill bakery in Cambuslang.

Scottish Enterprise (SE) and SDI visited the Clydesmill bakery in August 2016 to learn more about the company's plans and to offer support for Greggs’ Scottish sites through the Account Management and the Scottish manufacturing Advisory Service.

The company has also been contacted by the Scottish Government’s Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative, and a programme of support for employees at Loanhead was delivered by PACE between June and November 2016.

An offer of support was also made by the National PACE Team on 24 January 2017 for any staff that may be affected by redundancy at the Cambuslang site.

There is no reduction to the budget for Skills Development Scotland in 2017-18.

In the Budget Bill, approved by this parliament on 23 February, the Skills Development Scotland grant in aid budget increases from £176.1m in 2016-17 to £179.6m in 2017-18.

This budget will be supplemented by a number of in year transfers to allow Skills Development Scotland to deliver activity in addition to its core services.

The Scottish Government is progressing the transfer of reserved tribunals to Scotland. I met with the Senior President of Tribunals in November 2016 and will be meeting the president of the Employment Tribunal (Scotland) later this month.

The draft Order in Council for the devolution of Employment Tribunals is still in the course of being finalised and discussions with stakeholders on its terms are
on-going.

The phase one report identified that we should optimise what can be achieved by seamlessly working across the enterprise and skills bodies with a focus on agreed priorities and objectives, as well as the need to deal with the perceptions of a cluttered landscape by simplifying service delivery with a ‘no wrong door’ approach. Any savings which might be secured will be identified through the work being taken forward in phase two and beyond.

The agencies involved in this review are only one part of the overall enterprise and skills systems in Scotland, but they are an important one. As indicated in our Call for Evidence -Summary Analysis (see

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00505877.pdf), respondents overall felt that a refreshed strategic focus with a single vision, goals and shared ownership could foster more effective collaboration.

Detailed operational planning for the new Scotland-wide statutory board is being taken forward as part of phase two of the review, which is due to last six months. We plan to consult with the current boards, including Highlands and Islands Enterprise, in taking this forward.

There will be a new single, strategic Scotland-wide statutory board to co-ordinate the activities of SE and HIE, SDS and the SFC, in order to bring greater integration and focus to the delivery of our enterprise and skills support. This will focus on fully aligning and coordinating activity across the agencies to maximise their collective impact.

Our intention is that, once established, this overarching board will assume the key functions and roles of the existing agency boards whilst each of the bodies will remain in its own right. Consideration of how board functions will be distributed between levels, and what supporting infrastructure will be required to support the operation of the new board and of the existing bodies will be taken forward during phase two of the review. Existing boards will be fully involved in this, and will continue to perform their current roles during the transition process to the new arrangements.