Chamber and committees

My name is next to amendment 79 as a supporter. That amendment would add offences under section 19 of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 to the list of offences for which a trap licence can be suspended or revoked. Amendment 82, which also has my name beside it, would do the same for section 16AA licences. I express my full support for those amendments and the necessary protection, as the use of traps and other management measures can, and often does, result in unnecessary suffering.

There are provisions in the bill that will improve the training and regulation of trap operators, but it is vital that those are combined with a deterrent to the widespread non-adherence to the terms and conditions of general licences, with regard to allowing the live capture of wild birds and the impact on their welfare. The amendments would do that, and I am pleased that the Government fully supports them.

I listened carefully to what the minister said. There is clearly no difference in policy between us. The question was why she felt that it was not necessary to include other cable restraints in the legislation in the same way as the Welsh Government did in its act. I take on board her clear view that the definition of snaring in the bill very much covers other cable restraints. On that basis, I will not press my amendment 54A.

On the other amendments in my name, instead of going through them one at a time, it might make it easier for you, convener, if I say now that I do not intend to move them, if that is helpful.

I was not aware that I would have an opportunity to wind up, given that I had not lodged the lead amendment in this group, but I will certainly take the opportunity to do so.

The minister referred to the fact that the exceptions relating to wild birds are primarily about researchers using traps. However, I am still not sure why there is no clarity on snares for killing on that basis, because none of those researchers is killing birds.

I would welcome further discussions with the minister. I will not move the relevant amendments at this stage, but I want to ensure that, whether it is in explanatory notes or further statements, we absolutely make it clear that the exceptions are for researchers.

On that basis, I will not press or move my amendments at this stage. That might avoid the need for you to go through them all individually, convener, although there may be a procedural reason why you have to do that.

We are seeing those opportunities; as the minister knows, the south of Scotland has the highest number of wind farms in Scotland. So far, though, we have seen very few of those renewables jobs, and I hope that that will change.

As well as the cuts to enterprise agencies, the Scottish National Investment Bank is seeing its budget being cut by a third, to the lowest level since it began to operate, despite the fact that the chair of the bank says that the planned £2 billion public capitalisation will not be sufficient to meet the bank’s mission. Why is that cut so large, and is the Scottish Government still on track to provide the £2 billion that is committed to SNIB? Do you still expect, for example, the bank to be self-financing by 2025?

Is there a timescale for that yet?

Following on from those questions, we know that the budget is challenging, but we have heard that the budget overall is up. The departmental budget is down by 8 per cent, but the cuts to the enterprise agencies are three or four times higher than the overall cut in the budget—particularly for South of Scotland Enterprise, which will see a 22 per cent cut. Given the huge economic inequalities across Scotland—for example, the south of Scotland has the lowest wages and the highest level of outward migration of young people, because of the lack of high-paid, high-skilled jobs—what does the budget say about tackling the economic inequalities in those areas, when you are cutting the enterprise budgets in peripheral areas by so much?

I think that we will see more investment, and what we will certainly see from a UK Labour Government is growth, which we have not seen from the Scottish Government.

Sticking with the issue of financial transactions that you mentioned, cabinet secretary, what progress do you expect on SNIB’s ability to access existing capital beyond them? One of the issues raised with the committee by the chair of SNIB was securing the regulatory permissions necessary to manage third-party capital. What progress do you see taking place in the forthcoming year to enable the bank to do that and to access other forms of funding?

Just give me an idea of the timescale.

There is something else that you have not been able to put a timescale on yet. Four years after the legislation to establish the bank was passed, you have not yet established an advisory board to oversee its work. Do you have an update on the timescale for that?

That is helpful. The convener will not let me carry out a full review of business rates at the moment, but, Colin, you have lots of ideas, according to Leon—[Laughter.]—about how we can change things. Do you want to share some of them?

That is a very interesting point. A business across from my office showed me its accounts. Its turnover was going like that, and profits were going like this, but business rates were also going like that. Sorry, you will not be able to show that in the Official Report—[Laughter.] For the record, I was making signs with my hands to show that turnover was rising and profit was going down but business rates were rising. There is clearly something wrong with the way in which we calculate them. I do not know whether Marc Crothall wants to add anything to that from around the sector.

You mentioned that you feel that there is a lack of respect from Government. The one chink of light in the budget may well have been a commitment to review how we calculate business rates for hospitality. Have you been contacted by the Government on that review? Do you know what the timescale is, given the urgency of the issue? You may want to come back on that one. Marc, is there anything that you want to add about other parts of the tourism sector?