Chamber and committees

That is something that we need to address. Thank you.

Good morning. I will direct this question to Morven Taylor first, because it is about funding, but particularly in relation to housing. Other witnesses may want to come in more generally.

We have talked about criteria. Morven, I think that you mentioned the rural and island housing fund, prior to which we had the rural housing fund and the islands housing fund. One of the issues with those funds was that the criteria were so difficult to meet that they were not taken up and the funding was not fully utilised. We would welcome comments on the need to make sure that the criteria are right so that the funding can be used.

Consistency of funding was raised with me as an issue recently—in fact, it has been raised time and time again. A few years ago, a huge amount of money was taken out of the housing budget and then put back in. Last week, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations said that there is an issue of consistency and of confidence for those applying for and looking to take advantage of funding.

What are your comments on that? How important are the criteria and having consistency of funding, particularly in the work that you do? Other witnesses can come in after you have responded.

In your sector, do you see projects being delayed, if not lost, because of funding issues?

I am conscious of time, so I just want to be clear. Are you saying that conversations are happening between the Government and the operators of Flotta and Sullom Voe about how an operational future will be secured for both sites?

That would be very helpful. As I said, Flotta will have new operators next year. Although there are operational issues currently, this session is about the future so I want to confirm that those specific conversations will be had with the new operators.

Good morning. When we had Michael Shanks in several weeks ago, he said that, if he could have, he would have wanted to work on the issue 10 years ago. We might talk about some of the plans that the UK Government has for other sites, but I want to concentrate on the issues that I raised with Mr Shanks concerning Sullom Voe and Flotta, which sit in Orkney and Shetland, in my region. Both sites are operating at the moment but, although Flotta’s operational future was meant to last until the early 2030s, it has seen job losses recently and its ownership will change—NEO NEXT is, I think, the company that will be taking it over from Sinopec—while the plans that EnQuest has for Sullom Voe are all based around transition.

Michael Shanks could not say whether discussions were happening with the operators of both those sites. Are you having conversations with those operators about what the future will be, to ensure that we will not be in the same situation with Flotta and Sullom Voe as we are with Grangemouth?

That is interesting, and I want to expand a little on that. However, before I do that, I will mention your responses to Willie Coffey’s questions about transport infrastructure. I do not need to tell you that transport infrastructure is a major issue in the Highlands and Islands. Although we would like better connections, making some of the connections that we have more productive—for example, through reliable wi-fi on them—might be a good place to start. You would have thought that that could be rolled out far more cheaply and quickly than some upgrades. That was just a Highlands and Islands point. I will not mention connections such as the Corran Narrows ferry, because that would only wind up my colleagues.

What I really want to talk about is digitalisation, which involves so many areas. Professor Wessels made a point about clustering—about the need to bring different groups together because, perhaps, small businesses do not have the ability to do such work. To take that to the next level, that appears to involve a national approach.

When I was a member of the Finance and Public Administration Committee, it visited Estonia to look at work there. The people there have put pretty much everything online. As I remember from the many meetings that we had, which were absolutely fascinating, they created a central framework of parameters and security—the rules, essentially—then allowed different parts of their public sector and their economy to add to that, working within those rules.

Would you like Scotland to take such an approach? Would it be feasible for us? What benefits could it bring and what risks could it have?

That is really interesting. In Estonia, people in the ministry responsible spoke to us about the procurement process and how they do procurement. In this country, lots of organisations seem to come up with a need, go out to tender for a bespoke solution and then provide that solution but, invariably, it goes wrong or does not quite work. In Estonia, people work with potential tender companies before putting something out to tender. They go through all the problems first, and then only when they have a workable solution do they go to a tender. Could or should that be done here? Is it being done in some cases?

David, do you want to come in?

Thank you, convener. I will ask some questions about digitalisation a little later, but first—to follow up on what the witnesses have talked about—I want to ask about the public sector side.

There are some things nowadays that everybody will have experienced. For example, road works seem to take a lot longer than necessary, and there does not seem any great demand to get them finished. Turning to the health sector, I was trying to book patient transport for a family member—it took six calls, and at the end, I was told that I had to ring directly. I then spent 25 or 30 minutes on the phone to somebody else to book something that, in the private sector, I probably could have booked online in a matter of minutes. We see that again and again across the health service, councils and other parts of the public sector.

Bearing in mind that there are—as has been suggested—some good examples as well, do you think that there is enough demand, or desire, in the public sector to move more quickly to improve productivity, both for the people who work in the sector and for those who have to engage with it?