Chamber and committees

I think that one of your colleagues did that, too.

I think that we are doing a really good job, from an economic perspective. We bring all the functions of different parts of Government under one umbrella of team Scotland when it comes to economic decisions, and that creates a tried and tested approach to collaboration.

We could always do better, however. Committee members have quite rightly asked questions on gender data, climate change, productivity and different sectors. The challenge for us is always to remain as focused as possible and to prioritise the areas that we think will make the biggest impact.

In a political world, there is always something new to get excited about. In this role, I have tried to keep going back to our core objectives and focus on them. That makes it much easier to drive collaboration. For example, skills is one of the areas that businesses always want to talk to me about. We can always do more on skills but the skills and education sector will be dealing with other objectives, not just the ones that the businesses that I represent have.

What we have seen with this particular audit is that the public sector is very involved, which is encouraging. We will take that point on board.

Yes. I have had a lot of conversations about the big asks from the business industry with Ben Macpherson’s predecessor, Graeme Dey, during the production of the workforce data audit, which I just talked about. I am looking forward to picking up those conversations with Ben Macpherson. So, yes, there is a big focus on flexibility. We have seen some evidence of it, for example, around the Clyde maritime cluster, where Glasgow College has been absolutely brilliant in supporting industry ambitions. However, it would be good to see that right across Scotland.

There are a lot of questions in there. Let me start with the high-level perspective, which is that the enterprise agencies have never been as strong as they are right now. I say that on the basis of hard, cold data and evidence.

If we look at Scottish Enterprise’s results during 2024-25, for example, we see that it delivered the highest-ever level of planned international sales, reaching an unprecedented £2.46 billion, which is a 20 per cent increase on the previous year. If we look at some of its other statistics, we see that it has achieved 15,000 new and safeguarded jobs, £442 million in business innovation investment, £1.16 billion in business capital expenditure—the second highest on record—and £367 million in growth funding leverage. That is just Scottish Enterprise. I will not go through the data for the other enterprise agencies and the bank, because that would take some time.

My point is that the figures, which we analyse closely, are extremely strong. That is what I want to see. I want to see what our investment in those enterprise agencies is delivering for Scottish business.

I will make a second point, because the convener asked about collaboration. The committee might recall that, about eight or nine years ago, there was extensive public discussion about whether the enterprise agencies and the skills landscape at that time—this was prior to the bank existing—should be brought into one loose organisation. The committee might recall the enormous backlash to that. That, I think, has delivered far more independent and results-oriented enterprise agencies than would otherwise be the case. Highlands and Islands Enterprise, in an area that I know closely, drove the push against any enforced collaboration from Government.

HIE is doing sterling work, and not just on delivering the economic outputs—I could go through the data on that. It is also being a leader in the Highlands and Islands economy by bringing together all the different elements that drive economic growth and prosperity in the region. In collaboration with partners, it has quantified the scale of investment over the next 10 years at £100 billion in life sciences, energy and so on.

I am particularly interested in your question, convener, because of your interest in local government reform. On a number of occasions, you have put to me questions about mayoral authorities and local government reform more generally. My argument is that, ultimately, it comes down to strong leadership. What you see in HIE and South of Scotland Enterprise, in particular, is strong regional leadership that is delivering what you want to see from the mayoral authority model. I have answered that in two ways. I have talked about Scottish Enterprise’s strong results and about local regional leadership.

I will make a final point, which is that there is still a need for collaboration. Since coming back into government, I have been driving collaboration around the particular outcomes that we want to see. We have taken the question of attracting investment and, every quarter, I get all the chief executives—from the enterprise agencies, the bank, the Crown Estate and the Scottish Futures Trust—in a room to go through the structures in which they operate together, as well as the investment approach that they take and where the collaboration is. In the past year, in particular, I have been driving that collaboration really intensely so that they can demonstrate that they are working together more closely.

On attracting investment, we should not forget the office for investment, which international investors often engage with at United Kingdom level. I am pleased to say that the drive for collaboration across the enterprise agencies has pushed me to take a proactive approach with the UK investment minister. I have not met the new one, but I had a very good working relationship with Poppy Gustafsson and the office for investment in relation to ensuring that, when a business is trying to engage with the public sector, it has one gateway and finds that everything flows from that, with a process that is as streamlined as possible.

That might come down to a question of presentation, because, by and large, my view is that the enterprise agencies are reporting on the same metrics. For example, you can see the figures on planned international sales for the different enterprise agencies. There are two caveats to that. First, SOSE is at a different point in its life cycle; it is relatively young and is still choosing where to focus its attention, but it already has impressive statistics. Secondly, coming as it did out of the Highlands and Islands Development Board, HIE has always had a big social focus; there is still funding that goes through HIE into local development officers, for example, to a much greater extent than you would ever see in Scottish Enterprise, for very obvious reasons. It is important that there is still some regional variation.

On the presentational point about bringing together key metrics such as planned international sales, investment and innovation, there are quite a number of overlaps in the metrics. I will ask Colin Cook to come in on that.

I will bring in Aidan Grisewood on this.

I note that it is sometimes a question of presentation. Where we have very disparate programmes, it is a question of trying to bring them together in one place. For example, we have quite good granular data on gender in and around employability schemes, and we also have some on Techscaler. However, those are simply sitting as individual pots, rather than being brought together.

Aidan, do you have any thoughts?

I will make one point that Stephen Kerr will know already: it is an industry-led investment summit. I am delighted about that, because it means that the summit involves the City of London and Scottish Financial Enterprise maximising their networks with the support of both Governments.

You asked what we want to get out of that. There are a couple of things. You will know that, in my approach to investment, I have been trying to improve on three areas. One of them is a targeted and more strategic approach to investors. We are really good at speaking to the people whom we know about; we are not as good at speaking to the people whom we do not know. At next week’s investment summit, we anticipate a lot of investors who have not so far been active in Scotland and who are interested in getting in. This week alone, I have engaged with some of those investors who are looking to Scotland for the first time. On the first pillar—the investor relationship part—I hope that more strategic targeted engagement with those whom we do not yet know will be one of the results.

The second part is showcasing Scotland. There is a lot of familiarity with areas of Scotland that are open for investment; it is pretty well known that we are making the energy transition and that we have big industries such as whisky and salmon. However, what about our life sciences industry? We are going to showcase that. What about what we are trying to do in and around attracting private investment for housing? We can showcase that. We can showcase, to those who know us and those who do not, new areas of interest. That is not the endgame—that is just revealing what is available.

The third pillar is the area that I am most interested in: how do we build on the relationships that are established next week and follow up on those? My approach is that, although we have the initial conversation with a potential investor, it is not the politician who does the deal. We then bring in the experts in Government, often with the private sector, to sit down with those investors and ask what they need. Do they need some sort of public-private structured arrangement? Are there a lot of hurdles in their way that they need help from us to knock down? Do they need contacts? The follow-up is the most critical element.

What would I like to get out of that? I would like us to be able to identify—probably not next week, but in six months to a year—significant millions that have been pledged as investment in Scotland as a result of those early conversations.

I always orient my thinking around the billions, I am afraid—

In terms of my overall portfolio?