Meeting of the Parliament 29 April 2025
Those are very good questions. Subject to the decision of the Parliamentary Bureau, I would be more than happy to come back to the Parliament with a statement and give an update on the inquiries, if that would be the best place to go through some of those questions in detail. I think that I answered a question from the member a couple of weeks ago—or last week—to say that we had received far more inquiries than was anticipated, and Scottish Enterprise is very closely involved with that. There may be scope for cross-party updates on the progress of that work.
Scottish manufacturing and heavy industry currently play a key part in our economy and have shaped the nation as we know it today. The manufacturing sector is vital to our nation’s prosperity; it accounts for more than half of Scotland’s exports, it employs around 178,000 people and it contributes more than £18 billion in gross value added to the economy. We want to see that contribution grow. We will do that partly through investment of £75 million in the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland. We are also working to enable manufacturing companies, large and small, in every region of our country to be the best that they can be as they compete on the global stage. NMIS has a mission that aligns with our own: to make Scotland a global leader in advanced sustainable manufacturing.