Meeting of the Parliament 20 December 2017
I thank Jackie Baillie for the constructive tone of her question. I reiterate the point that I made in my statement: we propose to monitor delivery of the strategy. I fully accept that, now that we have it, we must deliver on it. We will report annually on it, so Ms Baillie will be able to judge us on our progress, and I am sure that she will do that in her usual robust style. I look forward to engaging with her on that.
Jackie Baillie is right to identify that there are some examples of projects that have a low Scottish content and even a low UK content. That is frustrating to us, and I know that it is frustrating to UK ministers. There are good examples, such as Nova Innovation’s project up in the Bluemull Sound, 80 per cent of which, I think, has a Scottish supply chain. That is an exemplar, but we must try to make sure that more projects hit such milestones, if we can achieve that.
I apologise, but I do not recognise the figures that Ms Baillie cited with regard to the Beatrice project—I would be happy to look at that. We understand that a higher percentage share has gone to Scottish manufacturing than she implied in her question. In addition, of course, the operations and maintenance expenditure will all be local. It will be spent in harbours such as Wick, which is being widely regenerated. That is a welcome development.
I reassure Ms Baillie and other members that we are taking the supply chain issue extremely seriously. I have flagged it up in the strategy as a strong priority for the Government. The offshore wind industry group has a specific supply chain focus and the oil and gas industry leadership group has an increased focus on supply chain issues, and I promise Ms Baillie and others that, through the work of such groups, we are taking an ever-greater interest in the issue. I ask members to judge us on our record, and I am sure that Ms Baillie and others will do so.