Chamber and committees

What changes would you like to see?

I have one further question. I will finish with that because of the time constraints. One improvement that has been made is the introduction of the quick quote system, but it has a threshold of £50,000. Should that be reviewed? If so, what level should it be set at?

I welcome Labour’s acknowledgement of how well the country performs in its report, “Building a business case for Scotland”, which states:

“Scotland has been an internationalist, outward looking nation that has punched well above its weight across the UK and on the world stage.”

That is a recognition of what the SNP has achieved during the past 17 years, despite a financial crash, Brexit and a pandemic.

Thanks to the latest figures from the House of Commons library, we can detail how we have punched well above our weight. Gross domestic product per head, which is a broad measure of economic growth, is higher in Scotland than in Northern Ireland, the north-east of England, the north-west, Yorkshire, the midlands, the east and the south-west of England. Before I forget, in Wales—which is Labour controlled—GDP per head is 17 per cent lower than it is in Scotland. The employment rate in Scotland is higher than the employment rate in Labour-controlled Wales and in Northern Ireland, and it is higher or on a par with the rate in many English regions. Scotland also has the highest median weekly earnings of any UK nation, and they are higher than in the UK. In Labour-controlled Wales, the median weekly earnings for a full-time employee are 10 per cent lower than they are in the UK.

Since Labour’s financial crash of 2008, productivity in Scotland has increased by an average of 1 per cent per year. Not only is that higher than the UK increase of 0.5 per cent per year, but it is higher than the increase in the OECD countries and it is higher than the EU27 average increase.

Analysis from the London School of Economics highlights that productivity is lower in the UK than in France, Germany and America. That gap is due to a lack of investment in capital and skills. On skills, Scotland has the highest percentage of its working-age population with higher education certificates, at 50 per cent, which surpasses the UK figure of 31 per cent.

A report on productivity from the LSE’s programme on innovation and diffusion says that,

“from a growth perspective, cuts to public capital investment in future years are particularly concerning.”

The report goes on to say:

“The UK productivity problem can be summed up in three words—investment, investment and investment. Or lack thereof.”

However, the Tory spring budget delivered no additional capital funding for Scotland. Indeed, the block grant for capital is expected to reduce in real terms, with a cumulative loss of more than £1.3 billion by 2027-28.

Scotland is also the only UK nation with a consistent international trade surplus in goods since records began. That is only one example of where Scotland is outperforming the UK and being held back by Westminster.

Electricity exports to the rest of the UK have an estimated value of £4 billion on the wholesale market. Yesterday, the boss of Octopus Energy said that switching to zonal pricing would give Scotland some of the

“cheapest electricity in Europe”

and that it

“would help attract businesses to Scotland”.

There is also currently an opportunity to attract high-energy-use companies such as data centres to Scotland, as there is a 10-year moratorium on building them in parts of London. However, electricity policy is reserved and, as a result, we do not benefit from our abundance of electricity generation.

Scotland’s record of attracting foreign direct investment outpaces that of both the UK and Europe for the number of projects and it maintains Scotland’s position as the top-performing area of the UK outside London for the eighth year.

Brexit has made it more difficult to trade with an EU marketplace of almost 450 million people, which we need better access to if we are serious about growing Scotland’s economy. However, Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems have all declared themselves as Brexiteers, and only independence will give us the opportunity to rejoin the EU.

The only relevant interest that I have to declare is that my wife is a local government councillor.

Good morning.

I want to ask you specifically about your experience of using the Public Contracts Scotland website. It has been on the go since 2008, and although there have been improvements in recent years, I am interested to hear your experiences. Last week, we heard from suppliers that having one portal is an improvement on what existed before—it is more transparent and it opens up opportunities for more suppliers—but it has been a bit clunky, although it has improved. What is your experience of using it?

You said that the system is fairly easy to use from the buyer’s side; according to the customer satisfaction survey, it is moderately easy to very easy to use for the majority of, although not all, suppliers. However, there is an issue for microbusinesses, because they lack capacity. Lynette Robertson has talked about “meet the buyers” events, supplier development programmes and all the rest of it, but is there enough emphasis on how you support microbusinesses to use the public procurement system, or do you feel that that is not your role?

Craig Fergusson talked earlier about perceived barriers. Is the website one of those perceived barriers for small businesses?

Yes.

You made a point about a small business being one of 10 companies bidding for a contract and being put off because it does not win. Is feedback given to suppliers that fail to get a contract, as part of a learning process to help them to improve their bids?

One of the suggestions that we heard last week was that commissioners could be allowed to search by type of organisation as a way of improving their social impact. Would you all find that useful?