Meeting of the Parliament 25 January 2024
I absolutely welcome that. It is so important that we treat teachers with respect and that we have more teachers. Outcomes are more important than inputs, which is something that I have been speaking to local authorities about. I absolutely welcome any school doing innovative work with technology.
To return to finance and fintech, it is great that the minister, Richard Lochhead, spoke warmly about the Scottish fintech sector, which has grown by 50 per cent since the start of 2020 and already supports more than 8,500 jobs in Scotland. The gross value added by the Scottish fintech sector is predicted to increase to £2.1 billion by 2031. Scotland is the second-largest centre for fintech in the UK after London, so Scotland is already punching well above its weight in the UK market. That is why, last year, as convener of the cross-party group on India, I led the first cross-party delegation to India to help Scotland to connect with India’s fintech sector. It is great to see my colleague Sharon Dowey here today. She came to India with us, as did Kenneth Gibson, and Ivan McKee is a deputy convener of that cross-party group.
India is a world leader in fintech and has the world’s third-highest adoption rate for fintech. It is pushing forward with new technologies such as a data-sharing interface that can reduce the barriers to digital access across the country. Growing Scotland’s fintech sector even further will create more highly skilled jobs in Scotland, as well as new business opportunities. That will require working closely with leading fintech companies in countries such as India, sharing knowledge where possible. In the future, it will be vital that the Scottish Government plays its part in ensuring that the Scottish fintech sector continues to thrive. However, as it stands, the Scottish Government is not supporting our technology sector in the way that it should.
As our amendment highlights, Scotland has the highest tax burden in the United Kingdom, which risks driving away the top talent that our technology sector needs. Instead of cutting the budget of the Scottish National Investment Bank by £69 million, the SNP should be using SNIB to support innovation, such as the Scottish space sector, in our economy. We are also seeing a cut of more than £60 million to the enterprise trade and investment budget, which hardly sends the right message to innovators in the business community.
Given the SNP’s approach to business and innovation, it is hardly surprising that the entrepreneurship rate in Scotland is now lower than the UK average. Scotland is already a leading technology nation, but it has the potential to go even further. We must ensure that Scotland continues to be a place where innovation and technology can thrive, as is called for in our amendment. Economic growth and the growing technology sector should go hand in hand. Too often, we have heard empty promises from the SNP Government on economic growth—we have yet to see them translated into real policies.
However, we should not fear. Once again, the Scottish Conservatives have come to the rescue with our paper “Grasping the Thistle”, which sets out our vision of how to create a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in Scotland. We want to see a real vision for economic growth that encourages the creation of well-paid, highly skilled jobs, that truly keeps Scotland’s history as a hub of innovation, and that—I hope—the Scottish Government will now deliver.