Chamber and committees

Thank you very much for your opening statement, and for bringing the proposed bill to us. As you know, the Scottish Greens supported Johann Lamont’s bill in the previous session, and we are pleased to see that you are taking up the issue this session.

Without prejudicing our consideration of your statement of reasons today, we have to determine what is different between the approach that Johann Lamont took and what you intend to do. Could you outline some of the key differences between the previous bill and what you intend to introduce?

Like others have done, I thank the panel very much for coming along this morning, for sharing their personal and powerful testimonies and for trusting us with those. I appreciate that that is not always an easy thing to do. Like others, I have supported the campaign for a full ban, and I remain committed to that—as Pam Duncan-Glancy and Fulton MacGregor have already said.

I have a couple of questions. One is about the medical profession and one concerns the issue of wider support for people exploring their sexual identity.

There have been suggestions that medical practitioners might be criminalised if they do not affirm a young person’s gender identity. I appreciate that this is not an issue only for the medical profession, but how can we ensure that we work across the piece so that people are able to support young people?

In some ways, that leads into my second question, which is about how we can support people to have the safe and secure spaces to explore their sexual and gender identity if they are expected to conform but feel that they do not. How can we ensure that we genuinely have those open spaces that are not curtailed by any legislation that we bring in?

To follow that up, can we ask the Scottish Human Rights Commission that question directly as part of the additional evidence that we gather? If we have Scottish legislation, would the relevant body be the EHRC or the SHRC? We need both their views on that. I know that they have already spoken to us about the ban but enforcement is an important issue.

When I think about this issue, I see two elements, one of which involves the legislation and the ban. What would you like us to do about the other element, which involves education, training and awareness raising? That will not necessarily make its way into legislation, but if we do only the legislation, we are doing only half the job. We need to be clear about what else needs to change. From your religious or faith perspectives, is there anything that you really want us to do or anything that you would argue should not be done with regard to the broader support structures and mechanisms such as education and training that we will need to develop and resource alongside any legislation?

Good morning to the panel and thank you for your contributions so far, which have been very interesting.

I want to pick up on a point that Jo Chidley made earlier about the potential and opportunity for sharing information, awareness raising and acting as a role model—that kind of thing. Acknowledging that the SME sector is a very diverse set of organisations and companies, how do we create a culture of zero carbon and net zero? That is not only about the financial and other help and support that is in place but about role models and awareness raising. Is there a role for things such as knowledge transfer? Associated with that, can we make better use of digital technologies? Michael Cusack talked about there being a need for new technologies all the time. Can we use technology to help us to create a culture across the sector?

I will go back to Simon Crichton and Fraser Sime. How do we ensure that companies get beyond start-up and how do we deal with the valley of death for post start-up companies?

Of course. We see what the Scottish Council for Development and Industry has called “the valley of death” or “the missing middle”, where Scottish start-ups fail to commercialise or scale up because of lack of support and lack of access to capital. Do you envisage that changing?

I thank the panel for their contributions today. I have two questions. First, we have heard from each of you about different positive incentives and approaches to funding people who are doing the right thing and who have positive action in mind. Is there any likelihood that you or others will increase the cost of funding for companies in high-carbon sectors or high-carbon supply chains? Is there a negative instrument?

Secondly, how do we make sure that we do not continue with the “valley of death”, or “missing middle”, in which Scottish start-ups fail to commercialise or achieve scale due to lack of access to funding?

I ask all three witnesses to respond briefly to the first question about increasing costs to fund grey companies. The second question is for the two banking folk.

I will cut in there. I am talking about lending to all SMEs, not just those that are involved in house building.

Thank you for coming along to talk to us.

Following on from the convener’s questions, I am interested to explore the relationship between your proposed bill and other things that we know are happening in the coming year. The Government has made a commitment to introduce the good food nation bill this year. In addition, later in the session, treaties that include the right to food will be incorporated into Scots law as part of the human rights bill. Do you have any comments on that?