Chamber and committees

The EU has just negotiated an FTA with India, too. For example, with tariffs on spirits, the Scotch Whisky Association sees reductions in tariffs as a consequence of the UK FTA, and the EU deal is broadly similar. It starts slightly later, because it was negotiated later, but the ramp down or reduction in tariffs is actually faster for EU exporters to India than it is for UK exporters, including Scotch whisky exporters. If Scotland or the UK were part of the EU, the FTA would be broadly similar. Clearly, if you are in the EU, you have much more negotiating power so, by and large, you would expect the EU to be able to negotiate better deals than the UK can.

Total imports from India into Scotland were about £480 million. That includes goods and services in the public and private sectors. I will see whether we can pull up the number on the public sector specifically, but I expect that it will be a lot smaller than that.

We have data available for the past three years. The amount last year was £900,000; in the year before, it was £1 million; and in the year before that, it was £500,000. The numbers are not significant.

It would not change any processes, because they are already configured to deal with the Scottish, UK and international markets. It is difficult to assess whether there will be more Indian bidders as a consequence of the trade agreement.

Good morning. As members know, the United Kingdom Government signed a free trade agreement with India on 24 July 2025. As is often the case, that agreement included a procurement chapter, which provides for reciprocal access to public procurement. Scottish procurement regulations set out that bidders from countries with which a relevant trade agreement applies are entitled to equal treatment when bidding for contracts in Scotland.

To implement the agreement with India, the regulations that the committee is considering today will, if agreed to by Parliament, update the list of relevant agreements by inserting a reference to the new agreement between the UK and India into the Scottish procurement regulations. That will ensure that suppliers from India are entitled to the same treatment as Scottish or other suppliers when bidding for contracts that are covered by the agreement. Importantly, under the terms of the agreement, Scottish bidders will, of course, be entitled to equal treatment when bidding for contracts in India, too.

I do not think that we have anything specific on that yet, because we do not know what bids we might expect for which products or services and in which sectors. We will be able to assess that once we see which Indian businesses are seeking to bid into the Scottish market and what the consequences of that are.

That is part of our consideration, but it is a legal requirement for us to put the measure into law as a consequence of the UK free trade agreement. You are right in the sense that there is always a tension—perhaps it is not a tension but a consideration—to do with how much to globalise the economy and how much to produce locally.

I think that everybody would accept that there is absolutely a need for global markets in certain services and products. For example, that allows the Scotch whisky industry to make exports and support many jobs in Scotland. Likewise, there will be much that India can produce that it would benefit Scottish public procurement and the economy more generally to import. It comes down to the particular goods and services that we are talking about. There will be areas that are more suited to local supply—hyperlocal services, as you said—and products that can be most effectively and efficiently supplied locally.

In the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill—treated in the round, because procurement is only one part of that—and across our wider public procurement, we have a huge focus on what we can do to support and develop Scottish businesses. However, it is absolutely undeniable that the ability to trade internationally is also a huge benefit to Scotland’s economy.

Yes. England and Wales are also implementing this, because it is a requirement of the FTA.

I do not know about Northern Ireland, to be honest.

In reference to Stephen Kerr’s points, in terms of the overall trade relationship, we track very closely the annual exports and imports between Scotland and other countries, including India. India is one of the target markets in the export strategy for seeking to increase exports. The free trade agreement will support the Scottish whisky sector and others in that endeavour. That data is tracked annually by Scottish Development International and by the Government.

In public sector procurement, we publish extensive data annually on the spend of public bodies, which identifies how much is spent in Scotland, in the rest of the UK and internationally. We have quoted data on the proportion that involves suppliers in India. We will continue to track that data.

As I said, it is a UK FTA. It is not a deal that we have negotiated, so we found out what is in it only at the end of the process.

I am not aware of any such assessment, but I will check with officials. As I said, it is difficult to do that in the absence of knowing what the specific bidding into the Scottish market for specific goods and services from Indian businesses would be. I have no doubt that assessments will have been done at UK level, and we can certainly seek to access those.