Chamber and committees

The Tay cities region deal has had a successful first two years since it was signed, in December 2020, with more than £70 million of Government funding already having been received by regional partners. The partnership is currently preparing its latest annual report, which will outline the achievements to the end of September last year, and we anticipate that it will include the securing of over £120 million of investment into the region.

We are certainly open to further discussions on these questions. I compliment the University of St Andrews on the development in Guardbridge. I drove past it the other week, on my way to St Andrews, and it is looking good. It is a significant enhancement of the area and a sustainable proposition.

We have not had discussions with the UK Government about a further round of city deals. On Friday, Mr McKee will be signing the islands deal in Liam McArthur’s constituency—I mention that because Liam McArthur is currently in the Presiding Officer’s chair. The islands deal is the latest of the deals involving the islands communities. However, we are happy to have further discussions with the UK Government on these questions.

I will try to reassure Emma Roddick on both those points on environmental protection and workers’ rights.

The Scottish Government would not sign up to arrangements that would dilute any of the existing commitments. Indeed, from a wider policy perspective, some of our concerns about the United Kingdom Government’s Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill reflect our concerns that those very rights for workers or controls on environmental protection might be diminished.

We have a governance structure to put in place. Those are essential commitments at the heart of green freeport status, so we will ensure that mandatory arrangements are taken forward through the successful propositions.

The Scottish Government is prioritising funding to help household finances across Scotland. We are taking action to increase financial security for low-income households, and the emergency budget review confirmed a range of additional support in response to the cost crisis. That includes increasing the Scottish child payment to £25 per week, doubling the fuel and security fund to £20 million and providing local authorities with additional funding for discretionary housing payments. In total, the Scottish Government has allocated around £3 billion this financial year to contribute to mitigating the increased cost crisis. More than £1 billion of that support is available only in Scotland, with the remainder being more generous than that provided elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

Although the First Minister changed her diary in order to meet the Prime Minister the evening before the announcement, she was not at Cromarty Firth because she was involved in some of the work to manage and address the pressures in the national health service. Those pre-arranged commitments on the Friday morning included discussions to avoid industrial action in the national health service. I am sure that Mr Halcro Johnston will be as pleased as I am that this Government—unlike the United Kingdom Government—has successfully avoided that. The First Minister changed her arrangements to make it possible to meet the Prime Minister, which I am sure that he welcomed.

Obviously, I empathise with the bids that were unsuccessful. Mr Halcro Johnston asked me specifically about the Orkney bid. The Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise will be in Orkney tomorrow and Friday to sign the islands growth deal, which Orkney will benefit from. Some elements of the proposal are emerging in relation to Scapa Flow, which contains some interesting possibilities for further development, and we will continue our dialogue with Orkney Islands Council in that respect.

I am very confident that the local and regional infrastructure will be available to support the winning bids, and Mr Halcro Johnston will be aware of the Government’s continued commitments on the A9 and the A96.

Finally, I will reflect on Mr Halcro Johnston’s point about the Scottish and UK Governments working together. There were some interesting lessons in the process, which was a process of joint decision making. There was equal involvement, and we both had to agree. It was not a case of one Government—the UK Government—setting out its will over the will of the Scottish Government. It was about joint decision making. Perhaps the Conservative Government in London could reflect on the importance of that approach in how we take such matters forward in the future.

First, I very much understand the concerns that Michelle Thomson puts to me. The risk of displacement is one of the fundamental issues with the green freeport concept. We will be putting measures into the governance and reporting framework to ensure that there is transparency in relation to those questions so that we can effectively scrutinise the effect of green freeports. We will also ensure that we have the necessary steps available to us to ensure that any displacement of activity is addressed as part of the process of monitoring the effectiveness of the concept.

Yes, the Government will act in that fashion. We are serious about the points that have been advanced. I will try hard over the period ahead to persuade Mr Greer of the merits of the steps that we are taking, but I assure him that we will act to protect the commitments that have been built into the green freeport concept.

That engagement will start very soon. As I indicated in my answer to Audrey Nicoll, we have used the engagement and dialogue around the decision-making process for green freeports to advance the arguments and the case for the Acorn project, for example.

That engagement will start soon and it will include those who have been involved in the bid in the north-east. We will work to ensure that as much of the bid as can be taken forward sustainably is taken forward.

I do not agree with that assessment. In arriving at our income tax policy for 2023-24, we have sought to carefully balance the need to raise revenue with the impact on households, businesses and the wider economy at the current time. The majority of people in Scotland will still pay less income tax than they would if they lived elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and our income tax policy will enable us to make additional investment in the national health service by exceeding the health resource Barnett consequentials from the UK Government. In addition, Scotland offers the most comprehensive social contract in any part of the UK, making Scotland an attractive place in which to live, work, study and do business.

In a sense, Jamie Halcro Johnston answers his own question. The Government has already delayed the introduction of the short-term licensing scheme to provide more time for the sector to adjust to it.

Earlier in the session, in response to Annie Wells, the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth set out the fact that about half of the retail, tourism and hospitality businesses will benefit from 100 per cent rates relief because Scotland has a different small business bonus scheme from that which operates in the rest of the United Kingdom. Rather than just tell us that we should replicate what goes on in England, Jamie Halcro Johnston should think about the fact that, if we did so, lots of companies would have to start paying business rates, and he is not suggesting that that should happen.

Finally—this is the real point—according to the figures that Mr Arthur put on the record, Jamie Halcro Johnston is asking me to commit to spending another £78 million on business rates relief. If he wants me to spend that money on that, he has to have the honesty to come to Parliament and explain where the money is coming from. Already, his colleagues are opposing the tax changes that I have made, which is another £125 million or so that they have to find.

The Conservatives cannot come here and ask me to spend more money when they cannot tell me where the money is coming from.