Chamber and committees

It has been more than a month since the Scottish Government was told that its bill went beyond the powers that are available to the Scottish Parliament. Taxpayers’ money is being spent so that the Scottish National Party can play cynical constitutional games with children’s rights. Does the minister believe that using almost £200,000 of taxpayers’ money to further the nationalist agenda is an appropriate use of public funds? [Interruption.]

Thank you.

I do not see anyone indicating in the chat bar that they want to come in. Does Martin Clarkson have any additional comments to make?

If time allows, convener, I will ask a quick follow-up question. Is that okay?

On the back of the answers that the witnesses have just given, I am interested in whether they believe that the requirement for the Scottish Government to compensate local authorities for a reduction in non-domestic rates income is an effective use of public funds.

My second question has been addressed by both the answers that have been given. If there are no other comments, I am happy to hand back over to the convener.

Good morning. I declare an interest as a serving councillor on North Lanarkshire Council.

I will touch on local authority revenues, which David Magor and others have mentioned already. Would allowing for appeals that would reduce non-domestic rates income and require the Scottish Government to compensate local authorities be an effective use of public funds?

Good morning. I will touch on issues relating to local authority revenue. What specific issues might arise for local government finances—now and in the future—if there was a significant reduction in non-domestic rates income as a result of successful appeals?

Thank you. That is useful in allowing us to understand the effectiveness of the appeals process.

The pandemic is one of the biggest challenges faced by young people across our United Kingdom. Young people have been detrimentally impacted as lockdowns and restrictions have affected their ability to work, study and plan for their futures. I understand the worry that the pandemic must have caused to many who have just left school and have no certainty about when life will return to normal.

As we continue to manoeuvre out of the pandemic, we must turn our attention to young people in Scotland. They are looking to us to ensure that we create jobs and provide opportunities to upskill. It is crucial that they have access to stable employment prospects once they have decided on their chosen career path.

Although the pandemic has added to the pressures on the job market, we know that the Scottish Government was under pressure to make improvements in looking at providing opportunities for our young people. From looking at the SNP Scottish Government’s record, we know that it has not done enough to provide our young people with the best opportunities once they leave school, higher education or further education. For example, prior to the pandemic, the SNP broke its promise to achieve 30,000 modern apprenticeships per year by 2019. It has missed its target on employability fund starts, and the numbers of young people starting a modern apprenticeship have fallen for five years in a row.

The SNP has admitted that the youth unemployment rate could rise to as high as 20 per cent. Its plan would help only 4 per cent of our young people. That proves that the SNP does not have a grip on supporting young people or the ideas to create more opportunities for them.

When we look at the roll-out of the SNP’s young persons guarantee and the national transition training fund, we see again that there is merit in the intention, as it aims to bring employers, partners and young people together, but the delivery has been poor. Although 4,000 people have had training funded through the national transition training fund, only 87 per cent of those who were surveyed after completing the programme had found a job. That is 13 per cent of those young people who will feel let down. Will the minister acknowledge in summing up that we need to do more to help that 13 per cent and ensure that that does not happen in future years as we continue with the programme?

I turn to the SNP’s apprenticeship policy, which was announced at its party conference last year. The First Minister promised a £15 million programme that would pay businesses £5,000 for each apprenticeship that they took on. In principle, that is a good idea, as it supports young people into employment as well as supporting businesses—it has been difficult for them, too. However, if we do the maths—as my colleague Pam Gosal did in her speech—we see that only 3,000 young people will be supported by that scheme.

The topic of this debate is skills and opportunities to support recovery. The Scottish Conservatives have the ambition to help and support young people. Some of our ideas, such as unlimited demand-led apprenticeships, were outlined in our party’s manifesto. We know that the pandemic and climate change have created demand in certain job sectors. We must take advantage of that by promoting those vacancies and helping young people to obtain work experience and jobs through apprenticeship programmes. It is simply not good enough to continue with the SNP’s targets-based approach, which ignores employers’ needs.

We would also look to support more women into apprenticeships. That area is often overlooked, but we know that there is a gender gap, particularly in STEM-related career paths. What could be better than to use the discussions that we have all had over the past week during the 26th United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP26—to bring more women into those sectors through apprenticeships and upskilling?

To conclude, the SNP needs to get a grip on those issues to ensure that our young people are provided with opportunities. If it does not act now to deal with the real issues that our job sector faces, many young people will, sadly, miss out on life-changing opportunities that could have been offered by the Scottish Government.