Meeting of the Parliament 11 December 2025
I warmly welcome the spirit in which Daniel Johnson made his remarks. It has been a highly collaborative process. From the get-go, I and the UK energy minister, Michael Shanks, have worked very hard with Scottish Enterprise and the unions to facilitate the deployment of the project willow opportunities. I pay massive tribute to Scottish Enterprise. More than 140 project proposals came in. It could easily have taken years to go through those, but it has gone through that process quickly and has identified the two projects that it has been possible to announce today. Other projects will be announced, but we cannot talk about them yet. They include some exciting going concerns.
However, it is not true to say that work on a just transition in Grangemouth started only last year. Such work had been going on for years through the Grangemouth future industry board, which Scottish Government ministers chaired. I was very pleased, in a spirit of working collaboratively with the new UK Government, to invite Michael Shanks to co-chair the Grangemouth future industry board. That shows that it is a joint effort that is delivering results. Both Governments are delivering results, but we are working hand in hand with all the interested parties in the Grangemouth community, including employers, the college, community councils and the local council, as well as Skills Development Scotland.
It has been a fruitful process. Is it a blueprint for how we might want to continue in the future? Absolutely.