Chamber
Plenary, 22 Mar 2007
22 Mar 2007 · S2 · Plenary
Item of business
SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE
Manufacturing
Enterprise, Lifelong Learning and Transport
It would be helpful if the official Opposition, too, gave a balanced account of the performance of the Scottish economy in these and other debates. The decline in manufacturing output, to which Mr Mather refers, is of course not uniform across the sector. Areas such as chemicals, refined petroleum and food and drink have exceeded their expectations.
As far as our calculations of employment and job losses are concerned, of course we take account of losses in the manufacturing sector. However, those losses have been more than compensated for, as Mr Mather is well aware, by expanding sectors such as the service sector, the financial services sector and the construction services sector. That is why we now have a record high employment level and are second only to Denmark in the European Union 25 for creation of jobs. It is also why, for the first time in my memory, we are exceeding the rest of the United Kingdom in keeping unemployment below the rate experienced elsewhere.
As far as our calculations of employment and job losses are concerned, of course we take account of losses in the manufacturing sector. However, those losses have been more than compensated for, as Mr Mather is well aware, by expanding sectors such as the service sector, the financial services sector and the construction services sector. That is why we now have a record high employment level and are second only to Denmark in the European Union 25 for creation of jobs. It is also why, for the first time in my memory, we are exceeding the rest of the United Kingdom in keeping unemployment below the rate experienced elsewhere.
In the same item of business
4. Christine May (Central Fife) (Lab):
Lab
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it has in place to support manufacturing industry, what the value is of such support and how many jobs have been ...
The Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Allan Wilson):
Lab
Scottish ministers provide a wide range of support to manufacturing companies in Scotland. That includes financial support, innovation grants, practical supp...
Christine May:
Lab
It is often suggested, particularly by the Scottish National Party, that RSA and other grants are exploited by rapacious foreign companies, which grab a gran...
Allan Wilson:
Lab
I do indeed and I note that in the same period to which I referred, businesses in the Fife area accepted 72 offers of RSA totalling more than £20 million. Th...
Jim Mather (Highlands and Islands) (SNP):
SNP
I cannot help but wish that, when I was an IBM salesman, the minister had been my manager because he seems to be able only to record gains and never to accou...
Allan Wilson:
Lab
It would be helpful if the official Opposition, too, gave a balanced account of the performance of the Scottish economy in these and other debates. The decli...