Chamber and committees

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has forecast that Scotland will be the only part of the UK where child poverty will drop, which is in large part due to the Scottish child payment. Given the favourable impact that it has had on reducing child poverty, why is any future increase being limited to inflation?

Is that about the number of posts that are available for people to apply for or is it about lack of interest in applying for the posts?

The second half of my question was about what either Government could do to address concerns.

On that point, Luke McGarty already touched on the importance of the small business bonus scheme. How important is it to the hospitality sector?

Good morning. Given the time constraints, I will try to cut my questions a bit short, although the answers might take a bit longer.

Last week, we heard that business confidence is on the floor and at its lowest level for a number of years. What are businesses’ main concerns, and what can Governments do to address them?

Will the policy have an impact on employment levels?

Good morning, panel.

I want to ask about business confidence. As you have already indicated, your sectors are all entirely different, so can you say where business confidence is in your sectors? What are the main issues impacting on business confidence and what can the Government do to try to address them? Who wants to go first?

On that point, most of the house building that you represent is private house building and is demand led.

Luke, are convenience stores optimistic?

You paint a very bleak picture. Is there anything that the Governments can do to address it?