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Showing 60 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
05 May 2020
Finance and Economy (Covid-19)
I will add a point about COSLA’s cost collection exercise: it is part of councils’ due diligence process; it is not being done as a result of a request by the cabinet secretary. My question is about business and follows on from the question that Willie Coffey just asked. Bus...
The Convener Con Committee
18 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Business, Workers and the Economy)
There are matters that we need to consider carefully, and I will give the witnesses the chance to pick up and comment on what I am about to say. It is clear that we are facing a financial crisis and that the national debt will be significant. Many parts of our economy might n...
The Convener Con Committee
02 Jun 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Some sectors—tourism, for example—will have a very slow restart. It is not only businesses that consider themselves to be tourism businesses that are massively affected. This week, a large laundry business in the Highlands that was doing the laundry of many tourism businesses ...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
11 Nov 2020
Covid-19 Support (Tourism and Hospitality)
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests. Last week, the South of Scotland Destination Alliance conducted a flash survey of the sector on the impact of the new tier system and the lockdown in England. The results are stark: 90 to 100 per cent of booki...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
22 Mar 2018
Fair Work
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am a business owner. In the short time that I have today, I will highlight a debate that has been going on for many years. It is one in which I took an interest quite a long time ago and one that has a ro...
Michelle Ballantyne Con Chamber
26 Mar 2019
South of Scotland Enterprise Bill: Stage 1
The point is not about not welcoming what has been done—we welcome what has been done. I am talking about joining up the thinking around it and not putting everything into silos. You cannot have enterprise development without digital connectivity embedded in it. There must be ...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Committee
19 Jun 2019
Transport (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I will try to keep my comments relatively brief, convener. I thank the committee for allowing me to speak this morning. Before I go on, I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests. The amendments in my name seek to secure exemptions from the scheme for i...
The Convener Con Committee
24 Mar 2020
Covid-19
There are concerns about the consistency of messages, because there are inconsistencies in what people are hearing. The UK Government has made it clear that if people can work from home, they should, and that if they cannot work from home, they should make sure that there are ...
The Convener Con Committee
02 Jun 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Recovery will obviously be key to the economy, and whether businesses can get back to work and reignite their turnovers and profitability. The cost of meeting HSE guidelines for reopening will potentially hit that recovery—in particular, when materials need to be purchased and...
Michelle Ballantyne Con Chamber
16 Jun 2020
Covid-19 Fiscal Implications
I am sure that the cabinet secretary understands that consequentials often come from different departments across Westminster and that, until the departments actually spend that money, the consequential is not realised. That is just the way things work. Like most businesses an...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
11 Sep 2018
Social Enterprise World Forum 2018
I join my colleagues from across the chamber in welcoming the Social Enterprise World Forum back to Scotland, and congratulate all those involved in organising and delivering the event. As we have heard, the forum enables social enterprises from across the world to share wisd...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
12 Mar 2019
Fair Work
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests as a business owner and employer. I have no doubt that everyone who is participating in the debate accepts that fair work helps to deliver sustainable and inclusive growth. As an employer, I commend absolutely ...
The Convener Con Committee
24 Mar 2020
Covid-19
Can we have some quick clarification? There will need to be clear instructions for businesses such as builders yards and timber yards, because a joiner contacted me today to say that he has provisionally been asked whether he can build dividers in the hospital, should that be ...
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Scottish Enterprise has always had a focus on increasing the number of start-ups and on high-growth businesses, which are deemed to be quick wins in terms of increasing employment and so on. However, there has always been a slight gap when it comes to those solid, long-term co...
The Convener Con Committee
11 Aug 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Scotland’s Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Item 2 is consideration of the impact of Covid-19 on Scotland’s businesses, workers and economy. Our main item of business is to take evidence in this inquiry. I welcome our first panel of witnesses: Tracy Black, director, Confederation of British Industry Scotland; Barry McC...
The Convener Con Committee
11 Aug 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Scotland’s Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Thank you. One of the big challenges that we will talk about is the fact that the supply chains of many businesses are breaking down, and not having access to their supply chains affects their ability to function. If we cannot keep businesses afloat, furloughing will not save ...
The Convener Con Committee
11 Aug 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Scotland’s Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
I seek clarification of that. You anticipate that people have fundamentally changed their behaviour and they are not going to spend or go out in the way that they did. We might borrow to support businesses on the basis of survival, but they might not survive as and when we sto...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
16 Sep 2020
Sustainable Aviation beyond Covid-19
No one doubts the importance of aviation as an industry, and the debate is welcome, given the number of emails that I have received from very worried employees. Because of our geographic position as an island, we cannot just dismiss aviation; we need to cross the seas, and we ...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
31 May 2017
Protecting Workers’ Rights
Thank you, Presiding Officer. First, I declare an interest as an employer in my capacity as a director of Ballantynes of Walkerburn Ltd, as a director of two charitable trusts and an employee of a third, and as a councillor on Scottish Borders Council. Presiding Officer and ...
Michelle Ballantyne Con Committee
23 Nov 2017
Continued Petitions
I have a couple of final questions for you. One is supplementary to the question that my colleague Brian Whittle asked about a wider profile for the Dumfries and Galloway review. When you conduct the review of the roads, will you include the wider economic profile of the regio...
The Convener Con Committee
18 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Business, Workers and the Economy)
Our main business this morning is to take evidence as part of our inquiry into the impact of Covid-19 on Scotland’s businesses, workers and economy. I am pleased to welcome our first panel: Tracy Black is the director of the Confederation of British Industry Scotland; Susan Lo...
The Convener Con Committee
18 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Business, Workers and the Economy)
Will Tracy Black answer that question first? The question was about whether businesses can operate at an optimum level of income or whether the need for social distancing will mean that a lot of businesses could go out of business.
The Convener (Michelle Ballantyne) Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
I welcome members, witnesses, and those joining us online, to the 16th meeting in 2020 of the Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee. This is the fourth meeting that we have conducted remotely and, on behalf of the committee, I would particularly like to thank the broadcastin...
The Convener Con Committee
02 Jun 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Item 2, which is our main item of business, is evidence taking as part of our inquiry into the impact of Covid-19 on Scotland’s businesses, workers and economy. I am pleased to welcome the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, Fiona Hyslop, and, from the Scotti...
The Convener Con Committee
02 Jun 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Do I take it from that that businesses can apply for sectoral support in the sectors that they supply?
The Convener Con Committee
11 Aug 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Scotland’s Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Who wants to come in? It brings us back to the first question on the likely level of redundancies if businesses continue to operate at a lower capacity. Do we think that the figures from the Fraser of Allander institute are right?
The Convener Con Committee
11 Aug 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Scotland’s Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Liz Cameron, that is the point, is it not? If an organisation, whether it is a Government or a business, borrows money, it has to be paid back, and that curtails the organisation’s choices. What are you hearing from the businesses that you are dealing with with regard to debt ...
The Convener Con Committee
11 Aug 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Scotland’s Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
As Liz Cameron says, a lot of those businesses cannot be saved. It is not that they will not be saved but that they cannot be saved. Their supply chain may have gone or their customers may have disappeared or moved away or may not be spending. Addressing some of those challeng...
Michelle Ballantyne Ind Chamber
22 Dec 2020
UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
Mr Lockhart has covered very well the issues that my amendments try to cover. It is wrong to think that everybody out there who is doing business and living their lives is watching every move that is made in this Parliament. Scottish statutory instruments are passed on a daily...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
26 Mar 2019
South of Scotland Enterprise Bill: Stage 1
I am pleased to represent my party and my constituents in the debate on the South of Scotland Enterprise Bill. As others have mentioned, the bill seeks to set up a new public body with the aim of encouraging economic growth, business development and employment in the Borders....
Michelle Ballantyne Con Committee
21 Sep 2017
Continued Petitions
To be honest, it is about business as well. Good businesses stay ahead of where the trend is going and where the market is likely to go. If they think that the trend is going to be anti a particular product, they will seek to get out of the market fairly quickly and find an al...
Michelle Ballantyne Con Chamber
12 Mar 2019
Fair Work
That is a slightly conflated question. The Government is trying to get people to engage proactively with the fair start Scotland programme, and clearly has only a 50 per cent success rate. What I am looking for from the minister is views on how that can be improved. That is th...
Michelle Ballantyne Con Committee
19 Jun 2019
Transport (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Hang on—let me finish. My understanding of the provisions is that they would not prohibit an employer from passing on the levy, so that may well happen. If an employer did not pass on the levy as a direct charge to the employee, in a business with low margins that would inevit...
Michelle Ballantyne Con Committee
19 Jun 2019
Transport (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
That is the whole point, is it not? Governments’ actions have an effect in the real world. The bill and the committee’s decisions will have consequences in the real world. It is incumbent on all of us, when we consider the amendments that come before us, to consider the potent...
Michelle Ballantyne Con Chamber
11 Mar 2020
Funded Childcare (Expansion)
Absolutely, and that is where I have most of my concerns about the roll-out of the policy. Local authority provision is inevitably focused on the three to four-year-old age group, and less than 10 per cent of it is the 8 am to 6 pm provision that working parents—particularly l...
The Convener Con Committee
24 Mar 2020
Covid-19
Thank you, cabinet secretary. I will start by asking a question that has been put to me in the past week by several companies that are involved in various forms of construction, such as electrical work and joinery. They heard the First Minister advise the whole of the constru...
The Convener Con Committee
24 Mar 2020
Covid-19
I have a couple of questions, the first of which is about food banks. They are not strictly businesses but they are doing a power of work out there and a number of them have contacted me to ask whether they count under the supply of foods. Can they continue to operate, as long...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
17 Apr 2020
Members’ Virtual Question Time · Covid-19 (Barnett Consequentials and Business Support)
As the Cabinet Secretary for Finance is aware, businesses are still questioning the level of support that they are getting to handle the crisis. On Monday, the cabinet secretary tweeted that she “could do a lot more if consequential funding from the UK Gov was based on busine...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
28 Apr 2020
Transport (Covid-19)
Scotland’s coach industry is on the verge of collapse, with coach operators and related businesses of all sizes now going out of business every day. Our coach industry is the workhorse of the Scottish tourism industry. It supports 1.8 million tourist journeys, which equates to...
The Convener Con Committee
18 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Business, Workers and the Economy)
Thank you. A lot of businesses are now looking carefully at the challenges of reducing business fixed costs and creating vertical integration.
The Convener Con Committee
18 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Business, Workers and the Economy)
Thank you. Susan Love, small businesses—particularly pubs and restaurants that are independently owned—are running on tight margins and are not getting a lot of finance to support them through this. How will they cope with the social distancing restrictions that will come in?
The Convener Con Committee
18 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Business, Workers and the Economy)
Thank you. It is clear that things can be different—for example, when it comes to guidance on how businesses should behave when they return. Liz Cameron, will you comment on that?
The Convener Con Committee
18 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Business, Workers and the Economy)
It certainly is a challenge when it comes to whether businesses can afford to implement it and whether it reduces their income to a level at which they are no longer viable.
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
27 May 2020
Manufacturing (Support for NHS Scotland)
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests. Many manufacturers are going above and beyond the call of duty to support the NHS through their manufacturing efforts. If the Government wishes to continue to rely on their good will, it will be important that...
Michelle Ballantyne Con Chamber
28 May 2020
Portfolio Question Time · Covid-19 Lockdown (Public Health Evidence)
The economy clearly needs lockdown to end and businesses need to be able to get back to work. The First Minister and the cabinet secretary have now said that the test and trace system will be at the heart of being able to move forward. However, we now know that Covid cases beg...
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Thank you. That sets the scene for the questions that we are going to ask. I will invite each member to ask their question, and then I will invite the witnesses to respond. If members want their question to be directed at a particular witness, it would help if they could indi...
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
As none of the other witnesses have indicated that they wish to add to what has been said so far, we can move on.
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
It is clearly early days, but the committee wants an idea of the context in which you are receiving the thoughts that come in, how you will look at them, and the strategic direction of travel.
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
What is Scottish Enterprise’s view on the job retention scheme? Charlie Smith must have been hearing from the people that it supports.
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
An addendum to that is the issue of how we value human and social capital in our economy and the business sector. When I was at university, many years ago, we talked a lot about whether human and social capital should be a feature of accounting and whether companies’ balance s...
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Over the years, there has certainly been a shift—maybe more visual than real—in mission statements and in the valuation of training. However, it has never been put on balance sheets, in accounting terms, that it is part of the value of the company. The debate over that has bee...
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
That is very true. I see Charlie Smith nodding. Do you have anything to add to that?
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
I have one quick question. Tourism has been mentioned a lot as one of the major areas that we could revive, and we have heard that premium tourism is likely to be a focus. I am concerned about the coach companies, on which Scottish tourism is fairly dependent, due to the rural...
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
I totally recognise and accept the group’s remit in looking to the future but, without a doubt, there is a link relating to the recommendations that the group will make about how the future might look and how our economy can recover, because they should probably inform the act...
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Benny, do you want to answer Dean Lockhart’s other question?
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Your report will go to the Government. Do you think that it will be made available for the committee to have a look at?
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
I am sure that we will put that question to the cabinet secretary when she comes to see us next week. I do not have any further bids from members, so that completes our questions. I thank Benny Higgins, Dame Julia Unwin and Charlie Smith for their time. Their evidence has bee...
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
Welcome to the second part of our meeting. I am pleased to welcome James Smith, research director at the Resolution Foundation. He joins us as the only member of our second panel—therefore, all our questions are for you, James. As we did earlier, we will move straight to ques...
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
James, you obviously have a lot of information and a lot of good stuff to give us, but I ask you to make your answers a little more succinct. At the end, I will give you a bit of time to add in anything that you feel is important and that you have not covered. Is that okay?
The Convener Con Committee
29 May 2020
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
We will move on to Colin Beattie.
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Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 05 May 2020

05 May 2020 · S5 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Finance and Economy (Covid-19)
Ballantyne, Michelle Con South Scotland Watch on SPTV

I will add a point about COSLA’s cost collection exercise: it is part of councils’ due diligence process; it is not being done as a result of a request by the cabinet secretary.

My question is about business and follows on from the question that Willie Coffey just asked. Business is the one area that is not political and does not make statements for political purposes. Businesses are now about survival and protecting the jobs of the people whom they employ. The Scottish Government has consistently emphasised geographic variation—it talks about that again its framework for decision making. Many businesses—in fact, all the businesses across Scotland that export—have supply chains and customers across the UK. The UK Government has already started to bring out its guidance on returning to work and businesses south of the border are starting to reopen. If Scottish businesses cannot start to reopen alongside them, they will lose competitive advantage, which is the very thing that Fiona Hyslop said would not happen when she gave evidence to the committee of which I am convener. I ask the cabinet secretary to take the issue seriously. The framework for decision making suggests that there will be no further guidance until 28 May, but that will be too late for many businesses.

In the same item of business

The Presiding Officer (Ken Macintosh) NPA
The next item of business is a ministerial statement by Kate Forbes on finance in relation to Covid-19. 15:03
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance (Kate Forbes) SNP
The Covid-19 outbreak has required an unprecedented response from the Government. It has focused primarily on the health of our citizens but also on the need...
Donald Cameron (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con
I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of her statement. I was pleased to see her welcome the anticipated £3.5 billion of funding from the UK Govern...
Kate Forbes SNP
At the risk of repeating myself, I have just said that every penny of that £155 million will go to local government. We recognise the cost pressures that the...
Richard Leonard (Central Scotland) (Lab) Lab
I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of her statement. The section on support for the economy refers to support for businesses, which is welcome. ...
Kate Forbes SNP
To be clear, when it comes to the economic measures that we have put in place, my two priorities have always been, first, to ensure that workers and employee...
Andy Wightman (Lothian) (Green) Green
I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of her statement. She stated that fairness and transparency are essential and that vigilance is vital in rel...
Kate Forbes SNP
The areas mentioned in both of Mr Wightman’s points have already been the subject of discussion and consideration. He will know that our powers to crack down...
Willie Rennie (North East Fife) (LD) LD
The finance secretary must know that councils are frustrated by the strings that have been attached to the money that they need to deal with the crisis. They...
Kate Forbes SNP
Local government is doing the right thing; I have been blown away by the way in which employees across local government have stepped up to the plate, most of...
Willie Rennie LD
It was about a universal basic income.
Kate Forbes SNP
When it came to mobilising our systems, whether through local authorities or enterprise agencies, what constantly struck me was that the fastest way of getti...
Bruce Crawford (Stirling) (SNP) SNP
I am sure that the cabinet secretary will agree with me that a healthy and dynamic university sector is crucial to the future of the Scottish economy. Like m...
Kate Forbes SNP
I assure the member that the issue is already being discussed as a matter of urgency. I know that the Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, has had regular di...
Maurice Golden (West Scotland) (Con) Con
The First Minister has promised help for the oil and gas industry, but last week she said that she had not yet decided what that support would be. Oil and ga...
Kate Forbes SNP
I understand that concern. Without wanting to be political in any way, I point out that, as the member will know, most of the powers to intervene in the oil ...
Gillian Martin (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP) SNP
I do not wish to labour the point that has just been brought up, but it is important. Before the crisis, oil and gas workers were to be at the heart of a jus...
Kate Forbes SNP
We have had those discussions. Support is available for those people, whether that is welfare support or, when we come to recovery, support to help them thro...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab) Lab
I welcome the cabinet secretary’s statement, particularly because her previous position of not telling Parliament the detail of budget allocations until the ...
Kate Forbes SNP
Local authorities in Scotland already have £175 million to support the coronavirus effort, and that money was available to them before local authorities in E...
Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (SNP) SNP
My question is on behalf of small businesses in my constituency such as opticians, barbers and hairdressers, many of which are struggling financially despite...
Kate Forbes SNP
I am working closely with Fiona Hyslop and other cabinet secretaries to develop an approach that will unlock the economy safely and build on the framework fo...
Michelle Ballantyne (South Scotland) (Con) Con
I will add a point about COSLA’s cost collection exercise: it is part of councils’ due diligence process; it is not being done as a result of a request by th...
Kate Forbes SNP
The member will know that we have tried very carefully to have an open and honest conversation about what transition out of lockdown will look like. We take ...
Tom Arthur (Renfrewshire South) (SNP) SNP
It is difficult to envisage sectors such as grass-roots music venues and travel agencies being able to return to their pre-coronavirus capacity for a conside...
Kate Forbes SNP
Such an approach will most certainly have to be part of our recovery. In our initial business support response, we tried to do two things: minimise people’s ...
Colin Smyth (South Scotland) (Lab) Lab
Everyone understands that the support that is provided to businesses is changing all the time and that more support will be provided. Will the cabinet secret...
Kate Forbes SNP
The member will know that eligibility for the grant scheme is based on the non-domestic rates system and on the Scottish small business bonus scheme, which i...
Angela Constance (Almond Valley) (SNP) SNP
Travelyard is a small bespoke service in West Calder, in my constituency. As an organisation, it has worked tirelessly to bring stranded travellers home. It ...
Kate Forbes SNP
It is accurate to say—and it is well documented—that the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme has not been able to help as many small businesses, by...