Chamber and committees

The report shows that meeting Scotland’s 2045 net zero target will require major growth in the sector. It also highlights the need for a versatile workforce, including people with broad skill sets who can work across various energy sectors. To the Scottish Government’s credit, the report recognises the

“breadth of allied STEM training provision in Scotland”,

but it notes that much of it is theoretical and lacking in the more practical aspects. Given that the demand for skills is expected to peak as early as 2027, the report strongly recommends that collaboration should happen urgently across Government, industry and educational institutions, to produce a “comprehensive action plan” that will allow initiatives to launch in time for the start of the 2025 academic year.

Will the minister provide an update on preparations for the new academic year? Can he offer assurances that colleges and training providers will have the resources to enable them to deliver the practical training to ensure that graduates will be work ready?

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the provision of vocational skills training, whether it will provide an update on its response to the 2025 ClimateXChange report, “Training provision in Scotland’s onshore wind and solar industries”. (S6O-04666)

There is certainly some good stuff to hear about. We need to value the third sector. It will be good to have that report when it is published next year and to have a wee look at it.

I go back to the issues around people’s understanding of the changes to GP surgeries. What actions does the Scottish Government need to take to help the public to understand how and why general practice is changing? People are insisting on seeing a GP, waiting in a queue for that and then being referred to the expert nurse anyway, which means that people are ending up waiting longer because they are waiting twice. What can we do to tackle that?

Yes, absolutely, Stephen—you are bang on there. It is a really big and important topic for the people who we represent.

I am also a bit curious about whether it is the role of only the Scottish Government to explain to people what is happening in GP practices, the fact that primary care is changing and about direct routes to see allied health professionals. Is there a role for the Scottish general practice committee to look at the negative public narrative around GPs and GP surgeries, to highlight the strengths that AHPs bring to the table, to do more work on getting that information out to people and to learn from each other’s good practice?

Just for the record, I was a councillor in South Lanarkshire Council until 2022.

I am interested in the progress on improving patient care. We have already spoken a bit about the fact that people are finding it more difficult to access healthcare at their general practice. It is no surprise that the Scottish Government has been commissioning some initiatives to help to address the issue. One example is the primary care access programme, which supports general practice teams to use data—we are talking about data again—to identify areas for improvement and then to look at improving an aspect of access over a short period. Do you have any views on the steps that the Scottish Government is taking to address concerns about people’s access to healthcare at their general practice? I am interested in any positive examples of areas where progress has been made.

That is really helpful. To a degree, you have pre-empted my next question. I am interested to hear about the case study that the Auditor General mentioned.

That is great, because building trust is absolutely critical. At a local level, that can be quite powerful.

I do not know whether you would want to comment on this, but, earlier, we were talking about the drop in levels of satisfaction in NHS Lanarkshire, which might be a symptom of what we have been talking about. Do you have any thoughts on whether the digital front door app, which is due to be piloted in NHS Lanarkshire, might be helpful and might have an impact?

Solar Energy UK recently published a report that showed that solar and battery projects could contribute more than £5 billion in gross value added to the UK economy by 2035 if the sector continues to grow. For Scotland to secure its fair share of those economic benefits, it must remain attractive to investors. However, the current disparity in TIA thresholds—the threshold is only 200kW in Scotland, compared with the proposed threshold of 5MW in England and Wales—makes it easier and cheaper to connect projects south of the border. Can the cabinet secretary outline the steps that the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that solar is not left behind in Scotland, that it has a clear and growing role in our energy mix and that it can reach its full potential to help Scotland to continue to lead the way on clean energy and benefit fully from the transition to renewables?

To ask the Scottish Government when it last engaged with the United Kingdom Government, transmission operators and the National Energy System Operator, to explore the possibility of reviewing the transmission impact assessment, in light of reports that this limits Scotland’s solar energy development. (S6O-04625)