Chamber and committees

Since taking on my expanded portfolio as Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy, I have formally met with a number of trade unions. I attended a meeting with GMB on 27 February in relation to Ferguson Marine, Port Glasgow. I also met with STUC and a number of affiliate unions (UNISON, Unite, RMT, GMB and Prospect) on 29 February to discuss matters related to energy and Just Transition, and on 28 March I met with STUC, Unite and GMB to discuss union involvement in Grangemouth Future Industry Board Leadership Forum (GFIB).

Additionally, trade unions are often represented on many other forums I engage with such as Scottish Energy Advisory Board and GFIB. My Ministerial colleagues also meet regularly with trade unions and STUC, reflecting their important role as key social and economic partners.

The regulation for the pricing and supply of medicines is reserved to the UK Government. Scottish Government officials worked closely with their counterparts in the UK Government during the 2024 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG) negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry, however, the devolved administrations were not included in the formal negotiations.

Commitments made on medicines and pharmaceutical manufacturing sustainability in the 2024 VPAG can be found in section 7.11 to 7.14 here: 2024 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (publishing.service.gov.uk) .

Since the New Deal for Business Group published its implementation plan in October 2023, there have been a number of achievements, including re-instating the establishment of the Regulatory Review Group (RRG). The RRG is now beginning to deliver strong engagement across a range of policies, from Circular Economy and Heat in Buildings to public health policy, including Minimum Unit Pricing, and vaping. A flexible work plan has been created and the RRG have been meeting regularly since October 2023.

On 14 March 2024 I co-chaired the first quarterly meeting of the New Deal for Business Group in its revised role of governance and delivery assurance. The New Deal is a project which will take time and the Group continues to oversee ongoing delivery of outcomes that drive an economy that is fair, green and growing.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26587 on 15 April 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Through the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (SIETF),we allocated £3.1 million in 2021 for Call 1, £6.8 million in 2022 for Call 2 and £6.3 million in 2023 for Call 3 to co-invest with a diverse range of Scottish manufacturers to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions through increased energy efficiency and deep decarbonisation projects.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26587 on 15 April 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government published the implementation evaluation of No One Left Behind and Young Person’s Guarantee in August 2023.

This evaluation considered progress in implementation and delivery, the experiences of service providers and service users, barriers and enablers to implementation and identified lessons from early delivery.

The implementation evaluation is available at: No One Left Behind and the Young Person's Guarantee: implementation evaluation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Monitoring compliance with Fair Work First principles, including the requirements to pay workers at least the real Living Wage and provide appropriate channels for effective voice, is the responsibility of individual grant managers across government and of relevant funders across the wider public sector. It takes place within existing grant assurance and monitoring processes, as with any other condition of grant, such as agreed outcomes.

Where an exception to the real Living Wage requirement is approved, the relevant funder is asked to record these. Officials are in the process of commissioning this information which will be collated and published in due course. There are no exceptions to the effective voice requirement, however funders may apply flexibility to recognise the different forms of voice appropriate for different organisations.

The National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) announced a ‘.. review of how best to significantly increase the number of social enterprises, employee-owned businesses and co-operatives in Scotland, supporting regional regeneration and the wealth of local communities’ .

The review is ongoing and is led by an independent stakeholder group. It is anticipated that the work will complete, with findings and recommendations published, in Spring 2024.

The Scottish Government has been progressing delivery of the 10 year Entrepreneurial Campus Blueprint through integration with existing policies. This includes brokering new partnerships between Techscaler and key universities, aligning with the National Innovation Strategy, 13 funded projects via the Ecosystem Fund as well as a £5.5m uplift to the University Innovation Fund. These activities will be monitored and reported on through existing mechanisms as well as case studies to demonstrate the use of the uplift.