Chamber and committees

As part of Phase 2 of the enterprise and skills review, we will explore the feasibility of introducing a requirement for fair work practice for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise account-managed businesses.

Details of Scottish Development International’s office locations in each year since 2011-12 to 2016-17 can be found in the following table:

SDI Office Locations

The Community Ownership Support Service (COSS) is being funded by the Scottish Government to support community-based groups in Scotland considering taking ownership of land or buildings.

This adviser-based service is being delivered Scotland-wide and aims to provide individual community groups and public bodies with a bespoke support service, including:

• Expert advice on all aspects of asset transfer

• Training courses on the asset transfer and asset development process

• Sign-posting to other support agencies

• Web access to information on good practice, toolkits and case studies.

Communities are also able to link into Development Trusts Association Scotland’s wider network to explore the wide range of business models being adopted by other communities throughout Scotland and across the UK.

Other options that community groups might wish to explore include the Scottish Land Fund and BIG Lottery Scotland.

The Scottish Government publishes Scotland’s Spending Plans and Draft Budget which sets out the Scottish Government’s spending plans on their Strategic Priorities for a specific period and most recently in 2016-17 publication (http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0049/00491140.pdf) a strategic vision for Scotland’s public finances over the Spending Review period to 2019-20.

Operational delivery of SDI is provided by Scottish Enterprise, with a contribution from Highlands & Islands Enterprise. Scottish Government staff are also embedded across SDI in a range of functions and provide operational trade and investment support working alongside SE and HIE staff

SDI’s workforce across the globe, including the EU, in each year since 2011-12 is provided in the following table:

* Calculated as full time equivalent posts and rounded up to the nearest full post.

The following table shows the SDI posts in the EU (outwith the UK)

Scotland has lower female inactivity and unemployment rates and a higher female employment rate than the UK as a whole. However, we recognise more can be done.

Through our Labour Market Strategy we are continuing to support and encourage people into the labour market, to reduce unemployment and increase employment. Our approach is to create an economy that supports a sustainable working population and that can retain and attract new talent, to meet our wider economic and social ambitions.

Alongside this, the Scottish Government has set out new commitments to; establish a Council for Women and Girls, deliver a programme for women returning to work following a career break and supporting the newly created working group to look at pregnancy and maternity discrimination in the workplace. On top of this we have announced a funding package of £200,000 which will enable organisations like Women’s Enterprise Scotland, Investing Women and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce to tackle the gender gap within enterprise growth. This is very much in line with The Scottish Government’s committed to promoting a can do culture of entrepreneurship across all of society.

The Minister for Transport and the Islands recently met with the CEO of Seatruck to discuss the issues around staff pay on the freight vessels currently operating on the Northern Isles ferry service. Following a constructive meeting, further work will be undertaken by Seatruck and Transport Scotland to try and resolve the current situation.

The Minister has also written to the UK Government to ask them to take action on the National Minimum Wage and seafarers. Scottish Ministers are currently considering all available options and legal implications to promote fair work practices, including collective bargaining and payment of the National Minimum Wage and, where possible, the Scottish Living Wage in their contracts.

The Minister for Transport and the Islands most recently met with STUC and a number of transport unions, including the RMT, on Thursday 10 November 2016, where the issue was discussed. Work is being taken forward to try and resolve the current situation.

We have published statutory guidance “Addressing Fair Work Practices, including the Living Wage, in Procurement” which sets out how public bodies should encourage contractors to adopt fair work practices, including the Living Wage for workers engaged on delivering public contracts. Individual public bodies are responsible for their own procurement activity and effective contract management and monitoring should be undertaken to ensure that fair work practices, including the Living Wage, continue to be applied throughout the duration of contracts.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires public bodies with an annual regulated procurement spend of £5m or more to produce a procurement strategy setting out, amongst other things, a statement of their general policy on the payment of a living wage to people involved in delivering public contracts. These bodies will be required to produce a report at the end of their financial year 2017-18 outlining whether their procurement activities complied with the strategy, and where they did not, how they intend to ensure compliance in the future.

By the end of the last financial year (31st March 2016) the Scottish Government had invested £20.8 million in loan support in Glasgow Prestwick Airport. The breakdown of this investment by year is £4.5 million invested in 2013-14, £6.3 million invested in 2014-15, and £10.0 million invested in 2015-16.

We expect all loan funding will be repaid, plus interest.