Chamber and committees

Thank you.

Graham Simpson will join us later. For clarity, Graham will be attending as a non-committee member, which means that he is entitled to attend the public part of the meeting and, at my discretion, to participate in questioning witnesses.

Agenda item 1 is a decision on whether to take items 4 to 7 in private. Items 4 and 5 are consideration of the evidence heard at our two evidence sessions, item 6 is consideration of draft letters on carbon capture, utilisation and storage, and item 7 is consideration of the committee’s work programme. Do members agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 2 is an evidence session as part of our inquiry into the role of local government and its cross-sectoral partners in financing and delivering a net zero Scotland. I refer members to the papers from the clerk and the Scottish Parliament information centre for the item.

We launched the inquiry in December to look into progress at a local level in reaching net zero targets. The inquiry is also considering what role the Scottish Government and its agencies can play in supporting and challenging local government to work well with its partners, and how local government can play its part in ensuring a just transition to net zero.

We are now in phase 2 of our inquiry, looking in depth at the key themes that emerged from our initial evidence sessions and our call for written views, and we will continue with a theme that we began last week: vocational skills and workforce readiness for net zero targets.

I am pleased to welcome our panellists, who join us remotely. Ian Hill is industry insight manager and Ian Hughes is engagement director for Scotland at the Construction Industry Training Board; Gordon Nelson is Scotland director at the Federation of Master Builders; Martyn Raine is technical and skills manager at the Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation; and Grant Tierney is chair of Local Authority Building Standards Scotland. Thank you for accepting our invitation; we are delighted to have you here.

We have allocated around 75 minutes for the panel. We welcome comprehensive answers, but with five panellists you will appreciate that we will also welcome concise answers, where possible. I remind members to direct their question to a specific person or to set out a running order for answering the question if it is relevant to more than one witness.

My first question relates to industry in general. Are there areas of the workforce where witnesses expect current skills gaps to increase or new skills gaps to emerge in relation to the transition to net zero? I will go to Ian Hill first.

You have acknowledged breaking the requirements of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 for business reasons. Are there any other laws that you would consider breaking if a similar situation arose? Can you understand why passengers would be very worried about travelling with a ferry company that is happy to break the law?

Natalie Don, who joins us remotely, will ask the next question. I remind members that their questions do not have to be allocated to all witnesses. However, it has been very helpful to hear from all the witnesses at the beginning.

I thank Mr Hebblethwaite for attending the session. In my 20-plus years as a member of the Scottish Parliament, I am not sure that I have come across an issue with an employer that has united members right across the chamber in such hostility. The people we represent—our constituents—even those who are not in the south of Scotland or in Cairnryan, are disgusted and dismayed that a company with your reputation, and a company that has shareholders with reputations, has treated people with such disrespect and such a lack of dignity at work.

However, I thank Mr Hebblethwaite for taking the time to attend the session. We will discuss the evidence that we have received later in the meeting.

I wish everyone a restful Easter break—unfortunately, that will not be the case for the many P&O workers who have suffered at the hands of this chief executive.

I thank our witnesses for taking part this morning. The committee will have a private discussion on the evidence that has been taken once the public part of our meeting has ended. If any of you have any further reflections that you want to provide to supplement your evidence, particularly on your wishes for one of your key partners, local government, we will be keen to hear from you.

The witnesses may leave the meeting, and I call a brief suspension to allow things to be set up for our next agenda item.

Welcome back. We now turn our attention to P&O Ferries. This session was scheduled following P&O’s 17 March announcement on staffing and on the suspension of services. I refer members to the papers for this item of business, which were issued by the clerks and by SPICe on Friday.

I welcome Peter Hebblethwaite, chief executive officer of P&O Ferries. I thank him for accepting our invitation at short notice and for his reply to our letter, which we received at 8.56 am today.

We have allocated one hour for this session. I understand that Mr Hebblethwaite would like to make an opening statement.

Thank you. Martyn Raine, would you like to comment on current skills gaps that are likely to increase, any anticipated new skills gaps and what your members are doing to address those gaps?

Obviously, in this inquiry, we want to focus on our witnesses’ work and relationships with local government, which procures and creates demand, too. It would be helpful if you could refer to that in your answers.

Thank you. We move to questions from Monica Lennon.