Chamber and committees

For free?

Is a review and assessment of the fee structure programmed in once the new measures are up and running?

My understanding is that that is what was discussed as the bill was progressing through the Parliament.

In your statement, you referred to the cost for searches. That is an important element of the whole system: that people can quickly look at what registrations there may be. When the legislation was progressing, there was some discussion about providing free access to non-profit money advisers. I understand that that has not come forward. What is the Government’s thinking on that, and why has it not been included?

Sorry, can I clarify whether you are saying that not-for-profit money advice organisations will be able to search the register.

An associated point, which is related to the broad point about fees, is about the accessibility of the register, especially to businesses who may not necessarily be engaging armies of expensive lawyers. What work has been done to ensure that the register is easy to use and accessible to businesses that might seek to use it?

I have a brief supplementary question about the flip side of that. If the deals were not talking to you, who were they talking to? You can base your answer on fact or on your sense of and feelings about dialogue. Were they talking to other big organisations or to Government?

Alors, bonjour, et je suis très heureux d’être ici.

I will do the rest in English, as I assume that that would suit the committee.

Yes, I do. However, I think that we need to refocus on what we want them to do. We should also look at how we can encourage cross-party groups to work together. One of the things that we discussed at our inaugural meeting was that, if our group is to work, we will need to think about how we work with the other cross-party groups, especially the ones that have a European focus. That might be a more fruitful way of working.

I think that there are too many cross-party groups, but, given the current geopolitics, it is important that we have country-based ones. There is a pattern in terms of the types of cross-party groups that we have—I will not call out what it is—but I think that the geographic ones are useful forums for trying to encourage a bit of exchange and doing useful work, and it is important that we do that at this point in time.

As you may have gathered by my attempt at French, the key premise for setting up the proposed group is that I am a lifelong Francophile. More broadly, thinking about cross-party groups in this place, the activities that we undertake and the global context that we are in, I believe that we need to think about our outreach and our relationships with other parts of the world, particularly as the globe faces points of political crisis. Some of the challenges that are being faced around the world are also being faced in France, which I think is a country that is worthy of the attention of, and being engaged with by, the Scottish Parliament.

There are, of course, historical links. France is Scotland’s oldest ally—that is a relationship and an alliance that goes back hundreds of years. More importantly, Scotland enjoys substantial economic links with France. France is the fifth-largest destination for outbound exports from Scotland, and Scotland is a geography that has attracted significant French capital. Some 160 French-owned companies that generate more than £8 billion in turnover have invested in Scotland. For example, Chivas Brothers represents 25 per cent of Pernod Ricard’s globally invested capital. Further, EDF has made significant investments in offshore renewables and other parts of the energy sector—I know that the convener will be interested in those investments. Perhaps most recently, we have seen the investment by VINCI Airports in Edinburgh airport.

For the historical and economic reasons that I have outlined, I think that there is good reason to have a forum in this place that looks at our relationship with France, at how we can build on those cultural relationships and how we can build understandings. Further, if you look at my other cross-party group memberships, you will see that I am particularly interested in how we can use cross-party groups as a vehicle to host people from other geographies with interests in Scotland.

The final point that I want to make is a more cultural one. I am very concerned about the decline in the number of young people taking modern languages qualifications in schools. I am interested in how we can improve cultural awareness and encourage people to learn French. For a long time in our history, French was the primary language that people learned in schools, and I think that we should try to encourage people to pick up French at any point in their lives. I just bumped into a colleague who told me that, every Tuesday evening, they take French language classes at the consulate on the High Street. Perhaps we can encourage other members to do that sort of thing, too.

With that, I will stop. I am happy to take questions.