Gwyddoedd, mae'r ffordd i siwr y bwysig yw'r pwysig yw'r pwysig yw'r pwysig, y pwysig yw'r pwysig yw COVID-19, yw'r llawm yn y parlymenau? Gwyddoedd? Mae'n cael ei bwysig. Yn ddiwedd yn hynny. Mae'r ffordd! Yn ymwysig yw'r pwysig. those noth of the way the first item of business this afternoon is portfolio questions the first portfolio is Covid-19 recovery and parliamentary business as ever any member wishing to ask a supplementary questions should press the request to speak button or place an RTS in the chat function if they are joining us remotely and we are tight for time across this afternoon. So as ever I would appreciate succinct questions and succinct answers wherever possible and 1. Daniel Johnson I ask the Scottish Government how it will evaluate the progress made in achieving the attended outcomes of its Covid recovery strategy. The Covid recovery strategy sets out three high-level outcomes that focus on reducing inequalities and supporting people most affected during the pandemic. Those outcomes that are shared with local government are also relevant to the Scottish Government's on-going response to the cost crisis. The Scottish Government is working in close partnership with local government, Public Health Scotland and the Improvement Service to promote those shared outcomes and consider the experience of different people in places across Scotland. Together, we are using a range of data sources, including national performance framework indicators, to better understand and evaluate progress towards our shared outcomes. Daniel Johnson On that point, we all know that Covid continues to have an impact on things like poverty, diagnostic waiting times and people attainment. Can I ask how those things are being measured and he alluded to the national performance framework? I also know that colleagues in the Parliament have struggled to table questions relating to those sorts of measures. Can I just clarify whether he believes that tracking those sorts of measures and reporting on them are part of the Covid recovery brief? Daniel Johnson I would certainly judge that to be the case. The issues that Mr Johnson raises are all relevant to the post-Covid situation. The recovery measures that we are taking are not just Covid-related because they are addressing the issue of inequality. For example, Mr Johnson has heard me before saying that Covid simply exacerbated inequality and did not simply create it for the first time. The framework that we have in place in the national performance framework effectively provides the forum to address the issues that Mr Johnson properly raises. Just for the record, I would be very happy to answer any questions on those matters should they be selected. Alasdair Allan To ask the Scottish Government how its Covid recovery strategy is supporting rural and island tourism businesses. The Government is committed to supporting the recovery of the tourism sector in our rural and island communities. Since the pandemic started, we have delivered packages totalling £258.5 million to support Scottish tourism and hospitality businesses. We have established the rural tourism infrastructure fund to support critical projects in rural and island areas. Additionally, we have helped businesses to recover with the tourism recovery programme, consisting of 10 projects aimed at assisting and accelerating recovery, providing the foundations for the sustainable recovery of the sector. The new tourism and hospitality industry leadership group that we have established will drive sustainable long-term recovery. Alasdair Allan I thank the cabinet secretary for his answer. I have been contacted by a number of his hospitality businesses in my constituency who are concerned that they may not survive this winter due to the impact of the cost of living crisis, with produced costs and energy bills both having skyrocketed. Given the devastating impact of this and the earlier events on the hospitality sector, can the cabinet secretary outline what representations the Scottish Government is making to the United Kingdom Government on the lack of adequate support for energy costs for SMEs who are not on the gas grid? Those are issues that are being put to the United Kingdom Government on a regular basis by the Scottish Government. Indeed, the First Minister indicated those points in her letter to the new Prime Minister on 27 October. The points that Dr Allan raises about the particular challenges of energy costs for non-grid users are a particular problem that is the subject of active dialogue with the United Kingdom Government and I assure him of the importance of that being taken forward. The Government recognises the importance of taking that forward. I would also make the point that the wider inflationary pressures beyond energy costs in relation to food and supplies to which Dr Allan referred are real significant issues. They have been exacerbated by the decisions that have been taken that have fuelled inflation and the lack of action on energy costs over the summer has contributed significantly to that experience as well. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it is working with colleagues in local government as part of its Covid recovery strategy to support Carrick Cymdeicant and Dyn Valley's recovery from Covid-19. The Scottish Government and COSLA have agreed shared priorities for recovery, focusing on those most affected by the pandemic. The Covid recovery strategy brings together over 70 actions that will support people across Scotland by increasing the financial security for low-income households, enhancing the wellbeing of children and young people and creating good green jobs and fair work. The strategy also focuses on renewing public services to ensure that they meet the specific needs of people and communities. East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire councils that cover the parliamentary constituency of my colleague Elena Whitham in Carrick Cymdeicant and Dyn Valley have been allocated an additional £38.6 million and £34.4 million respectively to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic through the local government settlement. Those payments are over and above their regular grant payments which, in 2022-23, have increased by more than 10 per cent. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Can I ask what impact will the delay to the UK Government's fiscal statement have on the Scottish Government's ability to plan ahead in terms of the support that it can provide to local government, particularly in the context of the Tory Government's crashing of the UK economy and now making people pay the price for its failure with a new wave of impending austerity cuts, slashing public services and cutting incomes? Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that independence is the only way to keep Scotland safe from the damaging Tory cuts and long-term economic decline? I fundamentally agree with the analysis that Elena Whitham applied. I would make the point that the decisions that were taken in the mini-budget over the summer—I have more to say about that in the statement that I made to Parliament this afternoon—has significantly exacerbated the scale of the financial challenge that we households and businesses are wrestling with. That will be felt acutely within the communities that Elena Whitham represents. The decisions and the timing of the fiscal statement being delayed from 31 October to 17 November compresses the available time that there is for the Scottish Government to consider that information and, as a consequence, to formulate the financial settlement for local government that arises. I assure Elena Whitham that we will take forward the dialogue that she would expect of us with local government in addressing those issues. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its engagement with stakeholders regarding its Covid recovery strategy. The Covid recovery strategy was informed by extensive stakeholder engagement and the Scottish Government continues to work closely with a wide range of partners to ensure that we deliver a successful recovery. We meet regularly with stakeholders, including local government, community planning partners, the third sector and business organisations, to resolve barriers, identify solutions and maintain progress. Our stakeholder engagement informs the discussions and decisions of the Covid recovery programme board, which I co-chair alongside the COSLA president and allows us to work together towards a shared national vision for recovery, as well as to support local recovery that is informed by local priorities. I am pleased that the cabinet secretary mentioned the third sector. I think that we all appreciate the value of charities and volunteers during the Covid pandemic. I think that it completely revolutionised the perception of self-worth giving and helping our fellow communities. With that being said, in the pre-budget submission, Volunteer Scotland raised substantial concerns about what is likely to be inevitable cuts to third sector funding over the next couple of years, notwithstanding the issues that the cabinet secretary mentioned. How do we ensure that those much-needed vital volunteer organisations both survive but thrive in our communities, given the good work that they do and the pressure that they take off pay public services? Mr Greene raises a very substantial point. I am keen as we work our way through what is going to be a really difficult budget process this year that will be compressed into a very short timescale. I will not rehearse all of the issues around that. I will have enough to say about that later on. The point that Mr Greene raises is one that I am anxious at all times not to lose sight of, because I am convinced—indeed, I am a strong advocate of this within Government—that there is work that the third sector can undertake that will deliver better outcomes, more than likely for less money, if we can properly support and design that assistance. This morning, I visited with Mr Greene, the Minister who is looking after the Ukrainian refugee programme, a third sector venture in Aberfeldy in my constituency, where local volunteers emerge out of the Covid programme, a group called Feldyru. I will leave members to reflect on the name, which delivered vital assistance to families during the Covid pandemic. They have created a hub for welcoming and supporting Ukrainian refugees. They are now supporting over 70 individuals within the community, and it is working fabulously well. However, it is a third sector venture that achieves huge amounts for very small amounts of money. The point that Mr Greene makes is one that I am very anxious that we try to take forward substantively during the budget process. The decision to close all bar 4 of Scottish Enterprise's offices, including one in Clydebank, suggests that regional economic development is not a strategic priority for the Scottish Government. There are real and genuine concerns that there is a disjointed approach to business support and to economic recovery. Can the cabinet secretary tell me how he will ensure that regional economic development and support for business is not lost as a result of those decisions? Let me just reassure Jackie Baillie that I do not consider the test or the measure by which we deliver effective business support is through the arrangements for offices around the country. There are many changes in the way in which services are now being delivered, with an increasing move towards digital delivery of services and the remote working with which we have all become familiar. If the decisions that have been taken are means of enabling us to deliver wider ranges of business support, I think that we should be prepared to embrace reform. I simply say to colleagues—I have much more to say about this this afternoon—that the existing financial arrangements are going to put enormous strain on maintaining the current network of arrangements that we have in place. Can I finally make clear to Jackie Baillie that the national strategy for economic transformation recognises the absolute centrality of regional economic policy? I welcome the opportunity to put that on the record today and to reassure Jackie Baillie about that point, because there is no point in the Government pursuing an economic strategy that only works for some parts of the country. It needs to work for all parts of the country, and that is what is the focus of the regional economic policy approach of the national strategy. To ask the Scottish Government what support is available in the context of its Covid recovery strategy to help high streets to recover from the pandemic and ensure that there are no long-term scar and effects. We are working with all of Scotland's cities and towns to support their recovery and help to build thriving sustainable towns and cities of the future. We maintain a competitive non-domestic rates regime, delivering the lowest non-domestic rates poundage in the UK for the fourth year in a row and supporting a generous package of non-domestic rates release worth £801 million. That is in addition to the action that we are taking to support our towns and city centres and to help retailers and communities to recover, not least through our £80 million Covid economic recovery fund, the £6 million city centre recovery fund, the £325 million place-based investment programme, our retail strategy and the town centre action plan. The Scottish retail consortium reported last week that the recovery and vacancy rates have stalled in Scotland compared with the rest of the UK. That is evident in my home city of Aberdeen, where the business improvement district of Aberdeen-inspired has organised an emergency summit for next Wednesday to save Union Street. Will the cabinet secretary attend this summit so that he can hear first hand from the retail and hospitality industries the issues that they face? I think that it is unlikely that I will be able to attend that event, although I am very glad that it is happening and that the business community is drawing together partners to ensure that it can happen. If Mr Lumsden wishes to write to me after the event to let me know the issues that are raised and the points that are identified, I will happily engage on those questions. It is important that individual communities, in the case of the city of Aberdeen, join together the work of local authorities, business improvement districts and I had a discussion just the other week there with Opportunity North East to identify further steps that we can take to advance much of the good collaboration that is going on on these measures, but I will be very happy to address any questions that arise out of the summit if Mr Lumsden would draw them to my attention. In addition to the challenges posed by the pandemic and Brexit, businesses in Scottish high streets now face additional pressures caused by the catastrophic economic policies of the Tory Government at Westminster. With nothing but uncertainty and austerity cuts in the horizon as a consequence, would the DFM share my view that the people of Scotland have the right to decide whether to continue suffering under a less productive and highly unequal EU economy or seize the opportunities that independence gives us? I would very much welcome the opportunity for people in Scotland to have the chance to decide on the independence question and to be able to exercise the choice about the approach to governance that they wish to see in Scotland. We face extremely difficult challenges ahead, which have been made worse by a combination of Brexit and the United Kingdom Government's decision making, which has had catastrophic implications for businesses and for families. So the point that Mr Kidd puts to me is a substantial point with which I agree, and I would welcome the opportunity for people in Scotland to be able to exercise that choice. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions ministers have had with the UK Government regarding making MSPs prescribed persons under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and extending parliamentary privilege. The Scottish Government has no formal role over MSPs of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Parliament corporate body, therefore led in making a direct request to UK officials on this issue. The UK Government laid the statutory instrument that adds MSPs to the list of whistleblowing prescribed persons in Westminster on 17 October. When this change comes into force on 15 December, MSPs will have parity with MPs on this matter and the Scottish Parliament will be responsible for providing MSPs with guidance and training on the impact of this legislation. I welcome the response from the minister in relation to PDEA, an act which I think is long overdue for reform, but every one of us in this chamber will hear from our constituents on a regular basis stories of injustice, people being let down very badly by service providers and of mistreatment and worth. The Scottish Parliament must be the place where these issues can be brought up, discussed and addressed. Members of this Parliament should be unafraid of censure or legal challenge. In fact, Members of Parliament in the House of Commons are given legal protections when speaking in the House of Commons. Will the minister support a move to introduce the same privileges to members of the Scottish Parliament that are enjoyed by members of Parliament in the House of Commons? Stephen Kerr makes a number of important points. The Scottish Parliament, as opposed to the Scottish Government, has now taken action that will at least improve the situation from the perspective of Stephen Kerr and, indeed, other MSPs in this chamber to give parity with MPs. In this case of whistleblowing, it means that anyone who wishes to approach an MSP can do so with their own employment being protected in the way that is the case with MPs in Westminster. Any other improvements that the member wishes to see he may wish to raise with the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament if it is in relation to the privileges that are otherwise of MSPs in this chamber? Stuart McMillan Thank you very much to ask the Scottish Government what role the autumn winter Covid-19 booster vaccination programme will play in its Covid recovery strategy. The winter vaccination programme will play a vital role in protecting people with the highest risk from severe illness and hospitalisation this winter. That will help ease the potential additional pressures that Covid-19 and flu will have on the national health service and social care services over the winter months. Although uptake of the vaccines has exceeded our expectations, we are continuing to explore ways to increase the vaccination rate. In line with our commitments in the Covid recovery strategy, we have embedded inclusivity as a key aspect of the vaccination programme from its outset, working alongside health boards and other partners to encourage uptake, remove barriers and respond to evidence of low uptake in certain communities, including those from more deprived areas. The winter vaccination programme began on 5 September, starting with frontline health and social care workers and residents and staff of care homes for older adults. Appointments for those aged 65 and over began on 19 September, and since 24 October those aged 50 to 64, with no additional risk factors, have been able to book an appointment online. Appointments for those aged 5 to 64 in a clinical risk group also began in the week commencing on 24 October. I thank the cabinet secretary for that reply. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that it is vital that as many people as possible take up the offer of both Covid and flu vaccinations as it is one way that we can help to protect ourselves, our family, the wider community and take pressure off the frontline health services? The Covid vaccination programme has been an unbridled success. It has given such assurance to the population and it has also given us such protection of our vital public services that would have been overwhelmed had we not had the protection of the vaccination programme. It has also enabled many of us, but not all of us because some of our fellow citizens still face real challenges because of their own and wider health factors, have been able to return to something closer to normality in our lives and that is a welcome progress that has been delivered by the vaccination programme. However, I take this opportunity to encourage anybody in the eligible groups to take up the vaccination programme. I echo everything that the Deputy First Minister has said about the importance of taking up the booster vaccination. I have booked my own for next week, perhaps I will. Perhaps I will see him there, Deputy Presiding Officer. But there does seem to be some anecdotal evidence that individuals are, in some cases, reluctant to come forward for a booster at this stage, perhaps because they think that Covid is over. Does the Scottish Government have any data as yet on the take-up figures for the booster, or when? I would like you to get that data. What more can the Scottish Government do specifically to target those groups, for example from certain ethnic minorities, who have a historic issue with reluctance to come forward and be vaccinated? I am glad to hear that Mr Fraser has booked his appointment, so have I. I was going to be rather impertent and suggest that I would have thought that he would have been in earlier grouping to me age-wise, but clearly that would be inappropriate for me to even infer it. The take-up has been very encouraging and has exceeded our expectations to date. I have those numbers in front of me, so I presume that I can use them. In older adults and care homes, for example, 85 per cent have been delivered in age 65 and over age group 74.2 per cent already. We are very encouraged by the progress that has been made so far. Having said that, Mr Fraser's point is a legitimate one, that we have to use every opportunity to encourage people to take up the vaccination, to not be deterred by some of the stuff that swirls around, because this is essential protection for individuals, and it is also protection for our public services to try to reduce the demand that may well present itself. We are encouraged so far about the progress, but I assure Mr Fraser and Parliament that the Government is tailoring its messages to make sure that we reach the groups. As I said in my answer to Mr McMillan earlier on, we have evidence from the previous experience where the take-up can be low, and we are taking steps in our communication message to enable that to be improved. I can confirm that I have booked my appointment as well, but I can only assume that it is because NHS Orkneyer is working through the age groups more quickly than other health boards. With that, I conclude portfolio questions on the point of order, Stephen Kerr. I had failed in asking my question to disclose and point members to my register of interests as a director of Whistleblowers UK, and I think it's important that I put that on the record. Thank you, Mr Kerr. That is indeed on the record. We now move to the next portfolio of questions. The portfolio is finance and the economy. Again, I encourage members who wish to ask a question to press the request of speak button or place an RTS in the chat function if they are joining us remotely during the relevant question. Question number one comes from Stephanie Callaghan, who joins us remotely. To ask the Scottish Government what its latest engagement has been with the UK Government regarding the funding available to support people with the increased cost of living. Presiding Officer, I had an initial meeting with the new chief secretary to the Treasury last week and have sent a number of letters to the UK Government requesting urgent action to address the cost of living crisis, given the powers to properly support people and businesses that are currently reserved. The First Minister also wrote to the Prime Minister last week calling for urgent action that meets the scale of the challenge, including additional funding for devolved governments to support our people, provide fair public sector pay-up lifts and protect our public services. I thank the cabinet secretary for that reply. Households and low incomes desperately need stability and certainty as they try to afford the essentials, pay their rent and keep food on the table. The Scottish Government call upon the UK Government to extend its cost of living support with new support packages that target those households most impacted by the increased cost of living, as we have done here in Scotland, and demand the upgrading of benefits in line with inflation. Those are calls that we have made to the United Kingdom Government. We recognise the importance of increasing social security benefits in line with inflation in April. If we were able, for example, to see the bringing in of a permanent £25 uplift to universal credit, that would make a huge difference to the circumstances of low-income households. The Government in Scotland is taking steps in the public sector pay deals that we are putting in place to ensure that the lowest incomes receive the highest increases or the highest percentage increases, I should say. Those are all measures designed to try to support people practically, but I assure Stephanie Callaghan that the Scottish Government is using every opportunity to engage with our United Kingdom Government counterparts to advance those important issues. To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made regarding increasing the employment rate for disabled people. The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics annual population survey show that the employment rate for disabled people in 2021 is estimated to be 49.6 per cent. That is an increase from 42.8 per cent in 2016, which was our baseline year for having the disability employment gap and indicates that we have made significant progress towards meeting our first interim targets to increase the employment rate of disabled people to 50 per cent by 2023. The progress that the minister outlined is very welcome. Can he confirm that the Scottish Government is on track to meet its overall targets in increasing the employment rate? In the Scottish Government's 2018 publication, Affair Scotland for Disabled People Employment Action Plan, we identified interim milestones that the employment rate for disabled people will increase to 50 per cent by 2023, as I said, but also 60 per cent by 2030. I can confirm that it is our understanding that we are currently on track to meet those targets. The Scottish Government also made an overarching commitment to ensuring that the disability employment gap is reduced by at least half from its 2016 level by 2038, as the member said. I think that we are making good progress in Scotland, but of course there is still a lot to do. Can the minister shed a little light on why Scotland lags behind England in terms of disability employment? The latest figures that I have from 2021 show that the average English employment gap is 27 per cent, as low as 22.4 per cent in the south-east of England, whereas the gap in Scotland is 32.8 per cent. Why the difference? I am happy to look at the regional figures for England and try to delve in a bit further to why there may be any differential, but I think that it is encouraging that we are making progress in Scotland with closing the disability employment gap. The measures that we are taking are hopefully making a difference, but of course there are many stakeholders and organisations who are supporting that as well. There are a number of different indicators. Some Scotland are ahead of the rest of the UK, and the member has highlighted some regional disparity perhaps in terms of this debate. I am happy to look into that further and perhaps drop a note to the member. Question 3, Finlay Carson. To ask the Scottish Government whether we will provide details of the £53 million reduction in the employability budget that was announced by the Deputy First Minister in September 2022. Mr Richard Lockhead. The £53 million reference was to support additional employability activity in 2022-23. The decision not to issue this funding was not taken lightly, but at a time of acute labour shortages, historically low unemployment and soaring inflation, and Scottish ministers have been clear on the need to prioritise money in people's pockets now over additional spending on employability, which is unlikely to result in immediate benefits for individuals. We have, however, maintained our existing investment in employability this year, with over £59 million being made available through the no-one-left-behind approach and £21.5 million available through Fair Start Scotland in 2022-23. Finlay Carson. I thank the minister for the response, but any cuts to the employability budget could impact on essential apprenticeship places right across Scotland. There are presently almost 1,000 apprenticeships in Frees and Galloway with employers such as Jas P Wilson and Depaunt Films. Those apprentice places provide an excellent pathway for young people to develop their skills and give them a great start in their career, but also create skills that are vitally needed in my constituency. Will the minister give a commitment to protecting those apprenticeships so that young people in my constituency and across Scotland will continue to have those opportunities? Yes, I am happy to give the member the assurance that he asks for, but I would point out, of course, that the employability budget is a different budget and is under our limited powers in relation to employment where we can support people who are very far from the labour market to come into the labour market, and that is what we are speaking about in terms of employability budgets. I would also make the obvious point to the member that, if he is concerned about the budgets available to the Scottish Government and indeed this Parliament, he should be making representations to the UK Government and he perhaps may wish to offer his support to the Deputy First Minister when he delivers his budget statement in a short while. The notable thing about the employability cut is that it was the only line within skills and training that was actually going up in the last budget, but it does underline the need to focus on the series. What is being done to improve apprenticeships and other skills measures to maintain or improve their accessibility to disabled people? I reiterate to the member that we still retain our employability budget and what was cut was the planned increase, so we clearly took that decision against the very difficult backdrop. In terms of his reference to apprenticeships, I think that I answered the point to the previous member about that and also disabled people in terms of the previous question as well. The specific question is about employability budgets. We still have the employability budget, but the substantial increase that we had planned for, of course, was cancelled due to the pressures on Scotland's overall budget. To ask the Scottish Government if it can provide an update on Prestwick airport and the contribution to the South Asia economy. Prestwick airport continues to grow steadily, making a positive contribution to the local and regional economy, supporting 300 direct jobs and many more in the local economy. The airport is working with the councils to play its part to attract inward investment with projects that are connected with aviation. The management and board have a clear strategy to deliver growth and the airport continues to strengthen its position as a niche airport with a reputation for being innovative and flexible in meeting customers' needs. I thank the minister for that answer. Prestwick was one of the few airports in the world to make a profit during the pandemic and also played a major part in cargo distribution across the whole of the UK. With the Brexit chaos and the backlog cargo at Heathrow, it was actually quicker to send cargo to Prestwick and then down to London than it was to get it out of Heathrow. Prestwick airport is also an integral part of the aerospace industry, which currently spawns over 4,000 jobs locally. Does the minister agree with me that the continual conservative criticism in the Chamber of Prestwick Airport is bizarre? I agree with the member that it is very important for all of us to consider the language that we use in this chamber and to make sure that when we are seeking to make critical points, we do not do so in a way that talks down or undermines confidence in any sector of our economy. Prestwick has clearly had significant challenges, but the recent performance of the business is promising and welcome. Significant progress has been made in winning a bigger share of the fixed-based operations market. Property around the campus has very high occupancy rates. As well as continuing its passenger operations, it is focused on growing its dedicated cargo operations for which it has a strong reputation. As home to approximately half of Scotland's aerospace sector, Prestwick is playing a key role in the Ayrshire growth deal and is helping to unlock significant inward investment, creating high-value jobs and potential supply chain opportunities in South Wales. That is progress that we can all surely be proud of, including all of the Opposition parties. Thank you, and I apologise that I should have advised earlier on that there is a grouping in this portfolio section, group 5 and 8, so any supplementaries I will have to take after question 8 and I call question 5, Audrey Nicholl. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what recent engagement it's had with the UK Government on matters impacting the Scottish economy. Over the course of the last few weeks, I have had discussions with a number of chief secretaries to the Treasury, but the new one just last week. I have also had extensive discussions with the Secretary of State for levelling up on the issue of investment zones. I have made clear the impact of the current economic crisis on people across Scotland and our economy, including the increased pressures on the Scottish budget and the vital public services that we support. Aberdeen in the north-east has made significant contributions to UK Government coffers through its energy sector. In return, the north-east of Scotland has been gifted Brexit, with Aberdeen the worst-hit UK city at a cost of £9,000 per person, turmoil in the housing market and skyrise energy bills, damaging families and forcing small businesses to close. Does the Deputy First Minister agree with me that it's time that the UK Government stops treating the north-east as a cash cow and that Rishi Sunak has to get a grip on the economy that his party has ruined? Audrey Nicol raises some very serious economic issues that are affecting the north-east of Scotland. The principal one that she raised was about Brexit and the implications that that is having on supply of labour and on the ability of companies to trade effectively with markets with which they were very familiar up until the implementation of the Brexit deal. That difficulty has been added to by turmoil in the housing market, where the housing market has been severely damaged by the effects of the mini-budget and the wider consequences that Audrey Nicol has highlighted. Audrey Nicol raises very significant issues that are having a negative effect on the north-east of Scotland economy. Obviously, the Scottish Government is keen to support the north-east of Scotland through the matching funding that we have put in place to the Aberdeen city region deal. The money that we have put in place for the energy transition fund is £75 million, and we have committed to the £500 million just transition fund. We recognise the significant challenges that the north-east of Scotland economy faces. A transition has to be made to net zero, and it has to be done in a just fashion. The Scottish Government is determined to work with the north-east of Scotland and interested local authorities and parties to advance that agenda, but the prevailing economic conditions are very challenging because of Brexit, and the prevailing economic mood arising out of UK Government decisions. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I had a meeting with the Chancellor, but I have been in correspondence with the Chancellor on a number of occasions about issues, as was my predecessor, Kate Forbes, the substantive finance secretary. I would point out that a number of those letters from Kate Forbes, the Welsh finance minister and the Northern finance minister were not replied to for significant numbers of months by UK chancellors. When we get lectured in this place about the engagement with the United Kingdom Government, I would point out that some of our correspondence quite simply does not get answered. I have had an apology from the chief secretary to the Treasury for that fact, and I am glad to say that I replied to my most recent letter. It is sometimes difficult for us to advance that dialogue when there is nobody at the other end engaging on those questions. I thank the Deputy First Minister for his answer, and it is, of course, very disappointing to note that the latest UK Chancellor, by not finding the time to even speak with the Deputy First Minister and acting finance director cabinet secretary directly, appears to have as little regard for Scotland and our elected Government as his predecessors. As for the lack of response to correspondence, there is absolutely no excuse for that. What on earth happened to the respect agenda, but can I ask the Deputy First Minister to advise as to what options, if any, will be open to him in the context of the devolved budget settlement to protect the people of Scotland from further UK Tory Government austerity cuts, cuts that the people in my Cowdenbeath constituency and people across Scotland did not vote for? Annabelle Ewing puts her case powerfully, as I would expect, and the constituents that Annabelle Ewing represents in Cowdenbeath will be significantly affected in a negative way by a further programme of austerity. Annabelle Ewing, in her case load, will be dealing with the consequences of the last round of austerity from the United Kingdom Government. The Chief Secretary to Treasury has promised me dialogue in advance of the statement on the 17th of November. I obviously will commit myself to that at any occasion in the hope of influencing the agenda to avoid a further round of austerity, because that would be very damaging for Ms Ewing's constituents and for members of the public around the country. I would point out that there was absolutely no interaction with the Scottish Government before the mini-budget in early on, just trying to think when it was, late September, absolutely no dialogue. Indeed, not even the courtesy of an advanced phone call, which is a breach in terms of the normal protocols of dialogue that are undertaken. The current Chief Secretary to the Treasury has assured me that there has been a restoration of the normal protocols of interaction. I will hold on to that, because it is vital that the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government and my colleagues in Wales and Northern Ireland are just as livid about this as I am, I might add, that we are properly engaged with to ensure that we can put forward the concerns and the views of members of Parliament and particularly constituents such as those of Ms Ewing that she has put to me today. The Deputy First Minister has mentioned his engagement with the UK Government, but I was disappointed to learn recently that there has been minimal engagement from Scottish Ministers on the development of the UK national shipbuilding strategy and the refresh of that. Would the Deputy First Minister please commit to having the Scottish Government engaging fully with that strategy, given that we are the second-biggest purchaser of vessels in the public sector outside the Minister of Defence, and we need to get this right when those vessels are awarded to Turkey as a failure for Scottish industry? I am very happy to commit to dialogue on any aspect of strategy that affects the industrial basis of Scotland or any other question of Scotland, but I respectfully point out to Mr Sweeney that there has not been a functioning United Kingdom Government for the best part of 12 months. It literally has not functioned. Interaction has been appalling. Dialogue one way. There has been no decision making coming back from the UK Government and what decision making they have undertaken, as Mr Sweeney and I will agree, in the mini-budget was catastrophic. I hope that we have some degree of functioning Government in the United Kingdom Government to allow us to advance the very legitimate issue that Mr Sweeney puts to me this afternoon. 6. Fulton MacGregor Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to businesses in the hospitality sector in light of the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis. Minister Tom Arthur. The hospitality sector is vital to Scotland's economy. We provided over £4.7 billion in support to businesses during the pandemic, including across the tourism and hospitality sector, and are closely monitoring impacts of the cost crisis. We are also establishing a tourism and hospitality industry leadership group to drive sustainable long-term recovery. We maintain competitive non-domestic rates, delivering the lowest non-domestic rates poundage in the UK for the fourth consecutive year, supporting a package of non-domestic rates reliefs worth £801 million. In light of increased pressures and limited powers, we will continue to press the UK Government for support. 6. Fulton MacGregor I thank the minister for that response. During the recent October recess, I was invited to meet with a number of pub owners from Cope Ridge Main Street who expressed a real concern about the viability of their businesses in the short term due to the cost of living crisis, rising energy costs and changes in behaviour following the pandemic. One of those is the Eden group, which employ nearly 100 people in my constituency. We are also in the national newspaper this weekend. The minister might have seen that. They are calling on the Chancellor to cut VAT immediately, offer rates assistance and provide some form of recovery funding. Would the minister agree with those calls on the UK Government and lend his voice to them? We understand that businesses such as the Eden group, operating in Fulton MacGregor's constituency, continue to face significant challenges, including the longer-term impact of the pandemic and the cost crisis. We do not underestimate the scale of those challenges. That is why my colleague the Deputy First Minister wrote to Jeremy Hunt, the new chancellor, on 19 October to re-emphasise the need for targeted support for households and businesses that are funded by windfall gains in the energy sector, and to seek clarity on the support that will be available from April 2023. We will continue to work with businesses in Scotland to press the UK Government for a range of measures to help ease the current pressures, including on VAT and recovery support. The Audit Scotland report on Scotland's financial response to Covid this year stated that 100 per cent of the £4.5 billion of Barnett consequentials related to business support was allocated, but can the minister tell me how much of the £4.5 million was allocated to funds but not spent? Is that money now available to help businesses who are struggling right now? We have committed all Covid consequentials for business support that we received during a pandemic to support businesses. I missed some of the detail of the member's questions, but I will be happy to consult the official report and get back to him in writing if there was anything I missed in the points that he made. To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to small businesses through the cost of living crisis. We understand the challenges facing small businesses that have been exacerbated by the economic upheaval caused by the UK Government in recent weeks. We have in place an existing package of non-domestic rates relief that is worth more than £800 million, which includes the UK's most generous small business bonus scheme. However, the powers and resources that are required to tackle the crisis of course lie with the UK Government and we will continue to press them to do everything possible to help Scotland's small businesses. I thank the minister for that answer and I refer members to my entry of the register of interest. I have already been contacted by business owners within the Lothian region, particularly in the restaurant businesses, who have been operating for decades, but now find themselves having to close for good thanks to the perfect storm of Covid. Our staffing crisis and now the cost of living crisis too. As we see this happening across multiple sectors at once, does the Scottish Government share my fear that we may have preserved our economy through the worst of the Covid pandemic, only to see it hollowed out by this latest crisis? I can assure Faisal Cowdery that we absolutely share his fears and his concerns in relation to the impact of the current cost of living crisis and rising energy bills on Scotland's small businesses in Lothian and throughout the country. I should say that Faisal Cowdery and myself and some others in the chamber were at the Asian Cating Awards dinner last night, where we enjoyed not only some fantastic curry and some good company, but we also heard from numerous small businesses in the hospitality sector and the catering sector, the restaurants of the enormous challenges they are facing at the current time with rocketing energy bills, bills for ingredients and other costs. This is a very, very serious situation. The First Minister, of course, wrote as recently as 27 October to the new Prime Minister, stressing the urgent need for clarity on what support will remain available for non-domestic consumers beyond April, and we have committed to working with the business sector to explore how businesses can be supported with their energy costs within and of all powers. We are supporting Business Energy Scotland and Business Issue Contact, Business Energy Scotland for advice, and we will do everything else within our powers. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Many small businesses in Scotland are facing substantial pressures, as has been said, so can the Minister provide any updates to the Scottish Government's latest engagement with the UK Government regarding the support available to small businesses to deal with this rising cost? I just reiterate to Bill Kidd to make many perfectly powerful points and boval points that the First Minister, of course, has just written to the new Prime Minister about these issues, and we await a response and hopeful a positive reply, and I have no doubt that the Deputy First Minister will address some of these issues in his forthcoming statement.


I want you to do two things.  I think the short term maybe in a long term hell no All of you out there, you're all men but there are various Characteristics that are related between you I can draw links from and form the concept of man.


Hi everyone, Sean with jazzy's casebricks.com here doing 2021 Perini Don Russ football h2 hybrid 10 box pick your team number two Where we're also giving away $1500 and break credit No vet common ship in this but Exceptions Tom Brady Patrick Mahomes and second-year quarterbacks as such as Justin Herbert Joe Burrow to a talk about Loa and Jalen Hertz All the image variations the no helmet variations those will also ship as well The $1500 break credit giveaway how to be entered into the $1500 break credit giveaway by two or more teams in this break Get entered to win top three names each $500 in break credit. So there you go top three names $500 each No max entries two teams one entry four teams two entries six teams three entries, etc. There you go Here is our list of customers respective teams Thanks to everybody for getting in on this from Ryan and the Cardinals down to Ryan and the Washington football team And here is that list in person Last spot mode of Travis Melberg cowboys and the Jets And then this is the second half of a case we started with pick your team number one So you'll see on these boxes. I've marked a two on there right on the D for Don Russ So all of those there have that little marking of the two just to show that they're all from the same case Uh, first part of this break is just going to be pack stacking And then we'll go through all the goodness before you guys So thanks to everybody for getting in on this Good luck Who's Yaman's work? Who's that Ryan? Remember, I didn't get in until seven so I've only been here for what like five and a half hours Jason was here like I don't even know what time in the morning and left not too long ago. So Downtown for sure I got you Okay, four more boxes to those days I mean we get to Enjoy the riches fruits of our labor Thank you. See what gold vinyl fields are downtown fields yet? Let's find one You won't find gold vinyl in this I don't think I don't even know what the the optic preview if you found an optic rated preview one of one I don't even know what that would be But don't think you're finding Gold vinyl even the golds I've seen are out of um out of like 25 The out of tens the lowest parallel I think I've pulled Ryan are black and like it's the paper, you know I think or foil So I actually don't know what the one of one looks like in this But we'll find out now, right Just watching dr. Who in the meantime Um, is dr. Who is that the one where there's like like 30 different seasons and there's lots of different doctors Like they change every couple years or something like that And there's been like a girl dr. Who and a bunch of other ones too That's that one, right And is it all supposed to be the same person or are these are these different doctors? I've never seen it nor have I like tried to Like pay attention to it, you know, I don't know It's just the black one of one this year. Okay Well, then let's get a black I'm sure they'll be gold vinyl once it comes into optic I just don't know if they have like an optic rated rookie preview like with the gold vinyl, you know It's the same guy. They just wrote it so the actor can change with his genius What's this a preview for this looks kind of crazy It looks like a zombie movie, but I don't think it is Or show this is fx on hulu The last man Fx on hulu Like the captain on star trek wait star trek had multiple captains, right? Didn't know that either Good luck guys. Here are the 10 boxes 10 boxes Taysom hill no helmet for the saints and dwayne escridge optic rated rookie preview for the seahawks and alfanzo mendosa Najee harris elite series rookie Steelers alfanzo mendosa Dak press got no helmet for the cowboys Kyle pits the rookies falcons brody von Deandre swift no helmet for the lions And trey lence rated a rookie 49ers alfanzo mendosa Jalen ramsey no helmet for the rams TJ watt no helmet for the Steelers And elysia mitchell to 500 rated rookie for the 49ers alfanzo mendosa Josh allen no helmet for the bills and tom brady for the buccaneers and faith benson Mack jones the rookies Patriots travis millberg and brett farve no helmet for the packers trey lancy elite series rookie 49ers alfanzo mendosa Tyree kill no helmet for the chiefs And jalen waddle rated rookie canvas for the dolphins travis millberg Jalen hurts second year for the eagles Joe montana no helmet for the 49ers Larry Fitzgerald no helmet for the cardinals and terry brad shot a 100 for the Steelers alfanzo mendosa Najee harris gridiron king rookie for the Steelers And alfanzo mendosa Baker may field no helmet for the browns And berry sanders no helmet for the lions Tom brady press proof for the buccaneers faith benson And jamar chase rated rookie portrait canvas for the bangles derek gordon true breeze no helmet for the saints And kyle pits the rookies for the falcons brady vaughn Seyquan barkley no helmet for the giants And dairies london no helmet for the colts Kyle pits press proof rated rookie falcons brady vaughn Chase young no helmet for the redskins or washington They are justin jefferson the 100 for the vikings faith benson Joe bro no helmet for the bangles and germaya owosu carmoa Optic rated rookie preview for the browns That is eric jock Kaderius tunet toni elite series rookie for the giants faith benson Tom brady no helmet for the buccaneers faith benson And emmanuel sanders to 500 for the bills collin adams Desvitz patrick optic rated rookie preview for the titans and faith benson jaylon herz no helmet for the eagles And nausea harris elite series rookie for the steelers alfanzo mendoza jonathan taylor no helmet for the colts and mac jones rated rookie for the patriots travis melbert Aaron donnell no helmet for the rams kyla meri no helmet for the cardinals and kellen mon press proof rated rookie for the vikings faith benson josh jacob's no helmet for the raiders and trace serman optic rated rookie preview for the 49ers alfanzo mendoza christian macaferi no helmet for the panthers and jaylon phillips optic rated rookie preview for the dolphins that is travis melbert tua taga by loa no second year for the dolphins justin herbert no helmet for the chargers kyle trask rated rookie portrait for the buccaneers and faith benson george kiddle no helmet 49ers and devonta smith the rookies for the eagles ryan herald russell wilson no helmet for the seahawks erin rogers no helmet for the packers and jaylon mills to 75 for the eagles ryan herald kyle trask elite series rookie buccaneers faith benson adam felon no helmet for the vikings and panacea well to 500 for the lions austin caruso carlos boogie basham rated rookie optic for the bills and collin adams tyree kill no helmet for the chiefs and jamar chase rated rookie for the bangles derrick gordon jaylon waddle rated rookie portrait for the dolphins travis melbert joe montana no helmet for the 49ers tj watt no helmet for the steelers and jacoby mires to 500 for the patriots travis melbert patrick moems chiefs eric jock and Peyton manning no helmet for the coles you got aj green gold to 50 for the bangles derrick gordon i'm sorry for the cardinals ryan heintz it is cardinals addition brett farb no helmet for the packers justin jefferson no helmet for the vikings and cadarius tony optic rated rookie preview for the giants and faith benson justin herbert second gear for the chargers and khalil mack no helmet for the bears travis etn rated rookie for the jaguars derrick gordon and kyle pitt's elite series rookie for the falcons brody vaughn joe vaughn miller no helmet for the broncos and davonta smith the rookies for the eagles ryan herald jaylon hert second year for the eagles zika elliot no helmet for the cowboys odell beckham junior no helmet for the browns and zack wilson gridiron kings rookies for the jets travis melberg john elway no helmet for the broncos patrick mahomes no helmet for the chiefs and eric jock and kyle traf to 500 for the uh buccaneers that is faith benson josh jacob's no helmet for the raiders and mac jones rated rookie for the patricks travis melberg in book to 100 for the saints eric jock and dimetric felton optic rated rookie for the browns eric jock trevor lorenz optic rated rookie jaguars derrick gordon congrats derrick beautiful card that's what you're looking for in here that exact card what we're looking for uh davonta adams no helmet for the packers derrick henry no helmet for the titans joe neymeth no helmet for the jets alvin kimara no helmet for the saints halfway through the this 10 box break now there's 10 five boxes to go guys i'm still looking for that case hit of the downtown as well brett farve no helmet justin herbert second year chargers tyreek hill no helmet for the chiefs von miller no helmet for the broncos and joe neymeth to 500 for the jets travis melberg joe montana no helmet for the 49ers and zack wilson out of 100 jets travis melberg last spot mojo 11 out of 100 there you go travis and zack wilson canvas rated rookie as well for you another one for you travis congrats those probably would have been in the same pack that's a nice little pack right there larry Fitzgerald no helmet for the cardinals and patrick sartain optic rated rookie preview for the broncos mark row josh allen no helmet for the bills tom brady for the buccaneers faith benson and mac jones great iron kings rookies patriots travis melberg optic rated rookie preview chaba hubbard for the panthers that is austin caruso tj watt no helmet for the steelers patrick willholms for the chiefs and eric jock and justin jefferson no helmet for the vikings khalil mack no helmet for the bears kellen mon for the vikings faith benson you out of here yep cool what do i do with the trash um just dump it in the dumpster in the trash bag or whatever boxes um boxes just cut them down same thing throw them in there and then i'm like the bottom of the door yeah yeah i'll uh when you're done uh once you're out i'll come back and lock it fantastic cool you have a great day yeah you too man see you tomorrow i won't be here tomorrow but see you Sunday but have a good day tomorrow thank you you were the key thank you no dude you got it yeah 40 orders i know that but that's what i'm saying anything to help just ask questions i'll i'll help you out whatever thank you oh later dude right get home safe derek andry no helmet titans and nico colin's optic rated rookie preview for the texans brody von we still got four more boxes yeah exactly right yet yes it's making you sweat for it lamar jackson no helmet for the ravens and aziz ojalari optic rated rookie for the uh giants and faith benson trevor lorenz rated rookie canvas jaguars derrick gordon davante items no helmet for the packers odell Beckham jr no helmet for the browns and trevor lorenz rated rookie jaguars derrick gordon john elway no helmet for the broncos and kyle pits rated rookie falcons brody von all it takes is one if it's the right one right right patrick mahomes chiefs eric joe and adam thielen die cut the 75 for the vikings faith benson all it takes is one joe nameth no helmet for the jets alvin kimara no helmet for the saints patrick mahomes for the chiefs eric joe joe burrow second year bangles josh jacob's no helmet for the raiders and kyle trask press proof for the buccaneers faith benson johnathan taylor no helmet for the colts and ben scornick to 500 for the rams uh mark rau joe burrow second year bangles two otaka by loa no helmet for the dolphins and diamie brown rated rookie preview for washington and ryan hines kylan gantt granson optic rated preview uh rated rookie preview colts travis melberg tom brady patriots travis melberg and deandre hopkins no helmet for the cardinals kelin mon the rookies vikings faith benson is it locked right now um like is but is it actually locked i go check and see if it's like just latched or if it's locked sounds great but yeah if it's locked i'll come do it all right kelin mon portrait for the vikings faith benson and rob gronkowski no helmet for the buccaneers mac jones elite series rookie for the patriots travis melberg henry rugs no helmet for the raiders and devonta smith for the eagles ryan herald is it locked locked travis calcy no helmet locked yeah okay i'll come out there real quick and chase claypool to 500 for the stealers alfons on mendoza dk metcalf no helmet for the seahawks and julio jones no helmet for the falcons pal trask rated rookie buccaneers faith benson and trevor laurence the rookies jaguars derek gordon joe burrow no helmet for the bangles and mac jones pressproof rated rookie for the patriots travis melberg buccaneers tom brady faith benson baker veyfield no helmet for the browns deandre swift to 100 for the lions austin caruso give me one second guys i'm gonna go i'll be right back and we'll finish up the last two boxes of the case and of this 10 box break what up oliver how are you buddy happy uh late friday night for you man i'll be right back two more boxes and that's it you bought the downtown nice jason i thought you would when he came over and showed it to you i was like yeah and then i saw you over there and you were like trying to take pictures and stuff uh he bought a uh the the jalen smith or no sorry devonta smith downtown drew breeze no helmet for the saints joe burrow no helmet for the bangles and brevin jordan optic rated rookie preview for the texans and brody vaughn he he means he's waiting for it like i'm gonna pull it for him right here that's what he he's told me to do baker veyfield no helmet for the browns and zack wilson pressproof or not pressproof rated rookie for the jets and travis melberg travis etn the rookies for the jaguars derrick gordon barry sanders no helmet for the lions derrius lennon no helmet for the colts we're down to the last two boxes or one and a half boxes out of the 20 box case robert woods to 100 for the rams mark rau making they're really making ryan sweat for it seyquan barkley no helmet for the giants and cadarius tony rated rookie for the giants faith benson justin fields the rookies for the bears and ryan herald and tray lance gridiron kings rookies 49ers alfonso mendoza tom brady buccaneers faith benson justin herbert second year for the chargers randy moss no helmet for the vikings and dominators patrick mahomes for the chiefs and eric jock that is derrick brown to 33 for the panthers and austin caruso tom brady buccaneers faith benson jaylen herz no helmet for the eagles and terris marshall optic rated rookie preview for the panthers and austin caruso well it's going to take us all the way to the last box ryan well make sure you stick around for the randomized with a break credit as well last time that's where you paid off for you and you got that uh that optic rated rookie preview preview of uh fields in the first half davante no that's not a no helmet rondell more optic rated rookie preview cardinals ryan heintz patrick mahomes action all pro chiefs eric jock larry Fitzgerald for the cardinals ryan heintz uh no helmet josh allyn no helmet for the bills tom brady for the buccaneers faith benson cadarius tony elite series for the giants uh that is faith benson brett farve no helmet tyreek hill no helmet and can newton to 100 for the patriots travis melberg if it's here it's coming down to the very very end do we see anything that could be a downtown here honestly i don't know if it's here is it one one a case and uh in hybrid also i know i know uh we pulled one over on loop not too long ago so from hybrids so jaylen ramsey rams no helmet and elijah mitchell optic rated rookie for the 49ers alafonzo mendoza joe montana no helmet for the 49ers tj watt no helmet for the steelers patrick mahomes for the chiefs uh that is and losing it eric jock and justin jefferson no helmet for the vikings nausea harris elite series steelers alafonzo mendoza khalil mack no helmet justin fields rated rookie bears ryan herald uh deandre hopkins the 500 cardinals and ryan heintz and mahomes gridiron kings chiefs eric jock so if it is a case it we got shorted one if it's not then there you go but yeah i was looking forward to a downtown to finish off the that case but dang it it's probably another case that has two in it then but it was not this one um that is it guys no autos no downtown in this lots of nice optic rated rookie previews but there you go guys that was 2021 punitive dawn rust football uh h2 hybrid 10 box break pick your team number two from jasper's case breaks dot com i still gotta give away the 1500 and break credit so there's that um i that same thing mickey i don't know possibly uh top three uh i removed that on this one ryan you know that it was on the first one i took that off of this one so here is the customer list and the teams so let's copy this customer list over alafonzo with four spots gets two austin with two gets one brody with two gets one derrick with two gets one and eric with four gets two faith with four gets two mark with two gets one ryan with two gets one and ryan other age gets one travis with six gets three so we're going to use two of his last spot mojo spots there you go guys so alafonzo down to travis we got 15 in top three win three out of 15 there you go guys 20 chance at $500 break credit dice roll three into two five times good luck fifth and final time derrick alafonzo travis top three $500 in print credit going to each one of you guys congrats five times on the randomizer five times on the dice derrick alafonzo and travis and there you go guys that finishes it off that was 2021 panini dawnrest football hybrid 10 box break pick a team number two from jaspyscasebricks.com i'm sean jaspyscasebricks.com thanks for hanging out we'll see you next time


We've got a lot of customers, Ryan's a veteran player. Ryan's been around the block and this won't be too big for him. He knows this and he'll be prepared and he'll operate and we expect him to play well. What was that like for you? I guess it was a transition to him.  So when you're going through the week, it'll be noted that this week, Marcus has to play the second game, something happens, you know, he's got to be ready. And those two guys are, you can't say because those things can get ugly if you got the wrong character people and those two guys between Marcus and Ryan, you're not going to find too hard character people and they've handled it because the transition from Ryan. You got to remember when Ryan came in, there was a spring ride and never been a backup.  I know a lot of people use those cliches, but really behind the scenes, you can see in it and there's countless times where those things can be ugly and both those guys prepare and Marcus is in this role now. It's going to be it's unusual for him, but Marcus is I can't say enough about his character because he's preparing and he's ready to roll and called upon with Ryan coming in fresh, maybe confident and everything. How much is this now maybe a test of what you're running, what you're calling, what this offense is? Yeah, well, I think a lot of times, too, you know, each week presents a different challenge and depending what happens in the game, a lot of times can can take you out of stuff just dictating on where you get into situations like obviously Ryan comes in there and it's last couple of drives and we need to go scored twice, obviously. And so you're a little bit higher tempo or you're you know, you're passing a little bit more or whatever the circumstance of the game and each week are different challenges. And so the Chargers will present a different challenge and obviously Denver did or Buffalo and we'll be ready to adapt and we got faith that Ryan will be ready to go. How will things look different just going from Marcus to Ryan in terms of the way he plays, the way things might operate? Yeah, they're little different players, but again, it goes back to week to week. You know, unfortunately last year we got in a similar situation. It wasn't obviously with the quarterback, but if you guys remember, we go on the Buffalo and you know, didn't execute in the red zone and we had to kick a bunch of field goals and then we go play Baltimore and then obviously wasn't what we wanted and then we ironically went to London to play the Chargers and then so these things, you know, they come up and I guess that we got faith that this week these guys we ready to roll their pros, we got a lot of pride if we know we got things to fix and I expect us to go play well. You've any concerns about timing between Ryan and his guys or is it a practice week and what they've done before? Sure, you've got to make sure that everybody's on the same page. It's, you know, he comes in the end of the game last week, but Ryan's got a lot of reps and it helps when a guy's a veteran. You know, it's a guy's a rookie. There's a little more unknown, but we know what kind of player Ryan is and Ryan got a lot of reps in the spring and as we mix and match personnel and obviously in training camp in the preseason games. So we feel good about it and we'll see it the rest of the week goes.


k youtube in the hospital by myself poo bears almost a half a mile away from me waiting on me we're in an older section you can tell by the door he parked up somewhere and I snuck back down she was scared so like always say when and down get the fuck out right so wooden floors I am in an old section I'm best something 2008 I do believe when this place closed wheels on wheels I'm sorry about some of the dark footage but the lights going dead in this camera it's a light I bolted on to the bottom of the camera so I could have some light but see somebody's been in here well of course I mean no shit I'm already but anyway batteries must be going dead because it's not as bright as it used to be footprints out there there was footprints when I came in but they were covered over with new snow so nobody's been inside this part yet today except me but there was fresh tire tracks when we came up the driveway earlier flight and I want to go try to find poo she absolutely loves this kind of thing but she was really she was feeling uncomfortable I said come on let's go so I said okay I'll go back for you baby I'm trying to get some video for you okay if you're seeing like a mist and stuff remember it's cold so it's my breath and I'm smoking cigarettes it's nothing paranormal although I am quite positive I am quite positive I if we brought some ghost hunting stuff night vision full spectrum we would find something I mean a lot of people has died you know in this hospital picture this is living floor it's like a labyrinth storage spaces this window see if I can get a bearing a warrant that right now if I start walking around for a while it's our own homeless people in here I don't want to interrupt them you know their lifestyle you know you do I got you know there was a time that I was not homeless but I had to stay with a friend and a couple times you know I just felt bad about having to stay with him and I did go places and spend the night and of course told him you know hey I was just out of friends but you know to save face but you know I have run into vagrants before but you know they're just just trying to live that's all and with the economy the way it is you know it's it's not good and there's going to be more and it's a shame should we let's do this you do I won't keep rolling while we do right here I want to jump me to just in the dynamic is now I don't know where the fuck I am but anyway like I said please don't put down the homeless because there are some good people and of course there are those people homeless people they just and that's just the way they want to live but there are some good people that you know they okay way up there but where that's in my ass who's up waiting on me so we got to get out and go clear up and find her and I forgot my phone she's some junk but I'll do a revisit of this I'd love to come back in the night time and bring the full spectrum but I don't like leaving her sit by herself either but yeah I've known some homeless people that would work their ass off her sandwich and I felt like I was taking them but then I came across one time I just went mud in my truck my suburban and okay I know where and there was a guy at an intersection offering him how to sign this and more food that's pure ice so I said I'll tell you what buddy I said I will give you a state dinner a place to stay for the weekend the whole weekend shower this is your shower up you know if you just wash my truck and I will help you I will take it to car wash all you gotta do is just lose it off and he said well that sounds good but he said you're actually gonna make me work for you just don't feel sorry for me I said well no I don't and I kind of felt bad but apparently he didn't want to work so but I've done it before where I mean they just it's that all you want me to yeah no I got to do more for you you know I'm getting paid too much I'm like dude no no here this you know you done fine and you know when I had my shop you know what's on cause I I'd pick us $10 an hour come in push a broom for me and those guys would work their ass off you know but like I say so you know be kind but be cautious also so I want to keep rolling there's a window broken out I want to keep rolling as we try to find our way out of here talk to you a little bit as we go I'm gonna try to make this a two-parter fuck didn't we come in at there's elevators two-parter or something okay I'm lost again and a couple videos for you guys I know we've been just uploading some personal stuff and but you know but you know I'm like I said we had to drive over an hour to get here from Ohio to Indiana to get some video for you guys and by the way the the gas company didn't pan out it's tore down and the haunted greenhouse is torn down I don't remember this I can't lost this big building but to the fellow urban explorers please be careful cuz see this is all ice right here and my camera's getting cold so seem to worry in the screen but I'm not sure I gotta find a way to get out of here and get back up over that hill it's almost a half a mile from here now so find out how to get out of here okay I remember shining light in there or shine the so we came in this way somewhere was it this way you guys remember thanks for being with me and us as we do our little Jimmy's now you follow our footprints out and all your guys in support that place is cool now I'm not sure where we were at but I think we might have been in that place I'm not sure but anyway thanks guys you guys are great and if you subscribed to us we'll gladly subscribe to you please feel free to comment rate and subscribe and but you know keep the comments clean you know a little dirt joke here and there's cool but you know don't bash us don't hate us you know if if you don't like her videos that's cool I understand just don't watch them you know it's no big deal but when you go to bashing us I get read especially about poober she's my life she's my world she's my sweetheart and you know nobody's gonna do that and you know so what I guess what I'm saying is don't hide behind the keyboard and be a badass be a badass to me but I'm sorry about some misgraphy that you guys see but something I can't help but I'm not going to I'm not going to blur it out or anything because this is what America has come to so this is why I show this stuff not to be nasty or mean but to say look look what people do but thanks guys I'm going to set you off here I still got gotta go clerper not far and out about another thousand feet and and we chat with you guys as soon as we can and again thanks guys and I hope you all had a happy valentine's day as I did but you treat treats me real well and gave me a great valentine's day and I just want to say I love you too and thanks for being my soulmate forever all right you too shea bear 1000 I'm out of here we're going later


Hello everyone, and welcome back to theCUBE's live coverage of Forward Six. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight, along with my co-host, Lisa Martin. The theme of this conference is AI at work, and that's what we're talking about. Is what we're talking about. We've been having, one of the things I loved yesterday, and we're bringing some of the main stage from yesterday to you right now, is really looking at how customers, the voices of customers, we're really talking about how automation can just massively unleash potential, and we're going to be talking with the guy that led off the conference right now. You're stealing my thunder. We're welcoming to the stage Dennis Lu. He is the CEO of Vital, welcome Dennis. And Mohamed Kedir, he is the section manager at Vital. Senior section manager, and we just, we call you kid, that's your nickname, okay, okay. Dennis, I'm going to start with you. Why don't you start telling our viewers a little bit about Vital and what you do, and what your company does. Thank you, I'm from the Singapore government. We are a department doing shared services, processing HR, payroll, finance, invoices, procurement shared services. In the Ministry of Finance in Singapore, we are about 500 strong. We serve more than 100,000 public employees, and more than 100 Singapore government agencies. So our scope is large, and I only have 500 people doing all these things. So that's where we come from. We are actually both civil servants, public employees, and we are here, and very privileged at a forward six UI path conference, learning about local automation and finding new ways to take ourselves forward and ahead in terms of productivity, in terms of doing better for our public officers and for our country. So that's why we're here. Ked, give us a little bit of your thoughts on, you know, one of the things we talked a lot about yesterday is that automation is, it's more than productivity gains. It's really about empowering people.  Ked, talk a little bit about that, and then Dennis, weigh in on your thoughts about how it's just more than productivity gains that people empowerment is really critical. Absolutely, Lisa. So I am a graduate of human resource management and business. So when I joined Vital, more than 10 years back, I started off as a human resource officer. Makes sense, right? But now I'm doing automation in the obstacle role, and I am enjoying it. So what happened? Maybe I actually go through my journey with you and how I was empowered at work to make this transition. So when I was in a human resource operations, automation solution, even the simple ones are being appreciated by my coworkers and bosses alike. Back then I was just using simple Excel formulas and VBA macros to do some sort of automation. And even this simple automation is being very received by my coworker, right? Because it actually helped them in their work. And these are actually encouraged and actually supported by our bosses. Perhaps maybe I'll tell you a story on how supportive the bosses are, right? So back then I was trying to learn about VBA macro. So I was trying to find work causes on VBA macros. However, it was all full, right? So when my director actually learned about this, she approached me saying that, hey, actually I got a course that she's attending coming up soon. So she told me why not I replace her, take her slot, right? So that's how supportive they are. So anyways, the culture of innovation from the bottom up is well-nested and vital. So however, I mean, who else will actually know about the tedious, painstaking work rather than the ground folks ourselves, right? Yeah, so however, when you actually use VBA macro for automation, you quickly realize the limitation of it, which is it's pretty much limited to your coding skills. Hence when Vitaly started training us for seasoned developer course, right? Using low-code automation tools, such as UIPath, so the X, it was really a game changer, right? I was thinking to myself, wow, this is so easy to now automate my stuff, my work, right? So each of us that actually went through the course needed to develop a script by ourselves. So did I, and I actually continued on developing more scripts that helped with my work process. Basically, I'm employing more boards to do my work, but getting paid the same, right? That's what Rob said yesterday. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So like what Rob said yesterday in the keynote, working smarter and not harder, right? Yeah, so that's my journey. So maybe I jump in to thank it for his loyalty to Vitaly. I mean, I'm an organization that experiences fairly high turnover for our government space. I mean, we hit 17% for a couple of years, so it's coming back down now. And Kit has been with us more than 10 years, right? Yeah. But in a positive compliment for Kit, with during the time he's been with us, he joined us as an executive. Today, he's risen the ranks all the way to a senior section manager along the way here. He has had multiple promotions and more importantly, a rise in job scope because today I brought Kit along to get another colleague, Ms. Fahana, because they're both citizen developers and Kit is now a citizen developer, supervising citizen developers. And there's magic in that, right? Because all of them know this local automation, which is one thing, but their starting point was business operations. They are the ones that felt the pain on the ground. Truly painful. I always feel very blessed when I supervise their work and read their reports because I myself would never want to do that, right? But as the boss, he talked about bottom-up. I need to do what we call a top-down approach. So it's a top-down bottom-up together. So the top-down approach, if you allow me a bit of time to elaborate it, it's actually quite simple when you think about it. We need to figure out how to empower and equip our people. Now in Singapore, we face labor constraints and labor shortages. My bosses, to their credit, are happy to invest in technology, but even if I wanted to hire another 500 or 1,000 people, I just cannot find them. So what do I do? So I have to look for solutions, technological solutions that allow us to augment, augment, put our people at the centre, and augment their capabilities even better so that they can grow in their jobs, do more, and over time, grow in their roles, right? Grow in their roles, get promoted, and be far, far more productive. I think that is the essence of our journey so far. And we're very appreciative for local automation, including companies like UiPath that provide us with the platforms for my staff to open up the journey. And if I may add in, because inspiration by talking to some executives yesterday, sharing my vital story and listening to their stories, I think one thing that Vital does slightly ahead or different from the rest is we are using the technology to reframe our role and reframe our work. So the whole idea is we were traditional back room operations, manual, tedious, and over time I always wondered my staff would come work a few years, get burnt out and leave, right? That's a real concern. Yeah, it's a real concern, right? How do you create and reframe your work such that ideally as more money work comes to us, we get energised, we get empowered, we want to do more. So the key enabler is this local automation. When you think about it, why is that so? Because now when I throw Kit and the team a challenge, I don't tell them please use brute force, work 24-7 and get the output out tomorrow because my service client, my service partner, Ministry ABC says this is very urgent, I need it now, right? In the past they would have to work through the night to get it done. Now what does Kit do? Maybe I will just turn to him and he can share more about the levels of automation that his team comes and really they are classified into three levels. That's the thinking, there's individual level automation, there's team level automation, there's enterprise level automation and everything is really being looked at by the citizen developers themselves with support from management. So if you don't mind, I could ask Kit to elaborate a little bit on the three levels of automation. Sure, sure. So basic, once he mentioned about the three levels, so maybe I will share with you on my scripts I developed on these three levels, right? The first one is individual level, right? So it's about my work. So it's pretty much simple. So monthly I actually need to do, refresh the dashboard and then provide my bosses. It's pretty mundane, right? So I actually developed a script to help me with that. So the script where I actually navigate to my case management system, I will generate the reports and then basically open the dashboard to refresh the data with the latest report. And then it will actually notify my bosses. So pretty simple but actually helps. Second level is teams level. So for the human resource and payroll teams, for one of the process, they actually need to generate multiple HR reports from the ERP. So what I actually scripted for them is for the board to actually navigate through the ERP system and then actually generate the different reports they actually need. And then the board would then basically perform some data manipulation, data wrangling to get the outcome that they want. And then shared in the shared platform before notifying the team that is done. Again, it's very simple but it works. It works. So lastly, it's more interesting, it's got to do with enterprise level. You're talking about organizing wide, vital wide level. So for this board I did was to bridge the system gap of our vendor ticket management system. Tickets here referring to the issue locks. For example, if vital staff actually encountered a system issue, they will actually lock a ticket to the vendor. So then the vendor will actually update in their ticket management system of their ticket. However, this ticket management system is only accessible by them. So problem will come when they actually are updated in their ticket management system that is pending for vital staff action. However, vital staff is not aware of that. It will lead to... There's a gap. There's a gap. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it will lead to longer resolution times and of course inhibitions of operations. So my solution is for the vendor to basically take the ticket listing from their own system and then give it to us and then the script will actually take over from there. It will do the mapping, the manipulation and then actually email to each and every single vital staff of their tickets, tickets that is pending for their actions. Yeah, and of course they also give a consolidated listing to the bosses for their reference. And then to any of... I created a shared platform whereby the vital staff can actually report inaccurate ticket status, right? And then this will actually go back to the vendor. So it completes the feedback loop. Hence, this whole solution actually breached the gap of our vendor's ticketing system. I'm just so proud to bring it to tell you these stories because there's no way I can tell them number one and number two. Imagine the value he has created for us. Absolutely, yes. It goes beyond, thanks for that. And it goes beyond the so-called productivity, man hours and savings. He's actually using local automation tools. He and his team, he and his team at the enterprise level to build entire refined systems of engagement, if you think about it, right? System engagement that level upon or that ride upon traditional ERP systems that all of us use. I don't have to mention their names. We know who they are, but everyone has to use these systems, but we all know that those systems can be clunky, can be difficult. And every time you put up a change request, it almost never happens because it's too expensive or the pro IT developers have no time. So coming back to what was talked in a conference yesterday, I think there was some, what ifs question on stage? What if your whole organization were IT developers? I almost wanted to say that was my promise to my bosses. I said, my whole organization, the 500 of them, will be low code, no code citizen developers. While I have an IT team, they're only about 12, they will focus on what is the very technical stuff that only the IT experts can do or equip to do. For example, cybersecurity, technical infrastructure and all these really incredibly difficult stuff that you don't need to go to college to get a four year degree or a six year master's, whatever to do. But the rest of us, 500, you heard from Kit himself, come from non-technical backgrounds, with the training, with the opportunities to co-create and learning from the likes of other customers and the experts at UI paths, they can make magic happen. So your excitement and optimism about the potential of citizen developers is so evident and there's so many dimensions to this story because of what it's enabled Kit to do with his team, what it's enabled the enterprise to get done and leading people to, I'm imagining, having more job satisfaction and more time to work on things that are actually meaningful and creative tasks rather than having to do boring mundane things which then will impact retention for you. But I don't want to throw water on it, throw cold water on it, but I want to ask what are the potential risks here and are you, because I'd imagine there are things that you have to consider when you have non-technical people doing technical things, there is some governance, maybe inconsistent standards, so how do you overcome those challenges and how do you think about them? So I would say these were questions that were thrown at us right from the get go. We started with local automation, playing around with it as early as 2017, 2018 and at the start it was all about a tender automation, small scale, because of this risk issue. Fast forward to today, fast forward for today and using the framework that KIT has elaborated. At the enterprise level, we put in place controls and governance where we look at the automation, the boards, the impactful ones, we draw a line to say that those that have above a certain impact and risk like this that go around various systems, after his team has built it, he leads a center of excellence team in an operations business division. They bring the entire script to a center of excellence in the center, which reports to me actually. We call it an innovation hub and we scrub through the requirements, the documentation. So you are the humans in the loop. Yes, we are the humans in the loop, the documentation and most recently we even got audited by our colleagues at the Auditor General's Office and the Accountants General's Office, our internal auditors to come in to take a look at our frameworks to make sure that all the documentation is correct. Number one. Number two is, you can imagine in the government, especially with security and confidentiality is so important. When we roll out these technologies, right? The IT security side of the house, we want to make sure that every step, everything that a board does has an audit trail. So all that we do within our systems are completely compliant with that. Human in the loop is so important because at a citizen developer level, every board is tied to a human being. So we know exactly who did what, especially for the attended boards. So my PA, my personal executive, it's not only does she serve two bosses, myself and my WT, she builds boards all the time. But all the boards are tied to her. So when you look at system logs, it looks as if she's doing all the work, but it's an extension of her, the human in the loop. For the unattended automation where we push up at the enterprise level, then there's this whole pretty rigorous structure of ensuring that they're all scrubbed, tested and checked all the time. So we have the frameworks to monitor them, I get a wonderful chart to show me all the different boards running, how many of them failed and why. This is a short answer to your question. It takes a while, but we have figured it out and we are pushing it hard. And the thing is this, right? I've heard again this morning feedback that how does Vital manage this pushback from the traditional IT? There is this not so nice word that sometimes people call citizen developers and I'll say it out there, they call us shadow IT, right? But the good thing is, I don't think we should be looking at who's in the light and who's in the dark, right? We're all working together to achieve a common outcome. The fact of the matter is, IT resources are extremely scarce around the world, not just in Singapore. I have 12, even if I get a budget to hire 24, and even if I can hire 24 or 30, they can't do everything that the 500 could possibly do. So it's about working together, ensuring and agreeing on all the security protocols which is non-negotiable. But after that, deciding what segment of the work who does what and the IT, I found that the IT people are very appreciative that the business users themselves take on this because, you know, for us, you'll write system requirements, send it to the IT guy, the IT doesn't understand what he wants. So now he builds it. My last question for you and maybe, you can comment on this as well, is your advice, your recommendations, you've probably gotten to speak with a lot of UI path customers in the last day and a half here, but what does it take for an organization like Vital to really embrace automation and AI? I imagine there's a cultural component there. Yes, yes. I think the starting point first as a leader is I have to make sure that I find the correct tools to think about how to bring organization forward. So you look at it from the top down and bottom up. I think top down, I would say I've gotten all the inspiration talking around the world. I mean, there are different platforms out there that we all can use. What I would say special about Vital and what I'm very happy with and I'm very privileged to have stuff like Kit and I don't have just one stuff like Kit. There are many others like him growing up. It's the belief in your people, in that your people can do it. The belief that your people can embrace this automation, reframe the way they think, reframe the job, put in the extra effort, and let me put it this way, they've been talking for four day a week, I'll say that's a luxury four day week, but we want to put in our good five and five and a half day weeks and earn a decent salary. And the only way to earn a decent salary or to see wage growth in this age is to see productivity growth. Productivity growth. So with great success stories like coming from Kit and I invite him to share what he thinks about the audacious target I've set for them, I told them recently a few months ago at my town hall that I want and hope to see a 10x productivity gain. 10x. Wow. And I think one of them fell off the chair. Because when I said that in my mind, if we have achieved, if we can achieve five facts, that would be great. But let's go for 10, that sounds better, right? And fast forward to today, and let me talk a bit about AI, all the product releases in recent times and how say UI path is also using generative AI to build it around the human, convinces me that what I'm thinking is correct. You think about it, right? Because with generative AI, citizen developers can script faster, can use StudioX more quickly because now it's able to generate ideas and the prompts and even do the first draft. In the past, it would have been taken, the same logic applies. In the past, he might have taken 10 hours to come up with a complex automation. Once we get our hands on these new tools, he may take half an hour. Exactly. So he'll be coming to ask me for a raise. But we're thinking maybe I just put in charge of all citizen developers. That's why we are so bullish about this and that's why we think it's such a great revolution. Don't just focus on the traditional IT and highly skilled staff, but focus on your whole population at large. Give them a chance, train them. I'm training my entire vital by the end of next year. 100% will be trained in RPA technologies. It's a whole organization. And give them a chance to upskill and to learn and to use their skills. And I think if I ask Kit what he thinks, looking forward, what he's excited about, maybe we can hear from Kit. So maybe I come in in the bottom-up approach, bottom-up approach in a story, right? Yeah, in a story. So the story is how my Opset team is what they are right now, right?  But do you know that several years back, they are actually coming from operations, doing the daily, day-to-day human resource processes. They also, some of them are actually doing payroll processes. Yeah, so, and then all of them do not have any IT or programming-related background, right? So in a sense, they are actually the earliest citizen developers of vital. So what make them change? So on top of the top-down approach which my CHE mentioned, there are certain common traits among the specialists which you can actually consider them as a bottom-up approach. I can summarize here. So the first one is actually I got interest in technology. So they are actually aware very early up that what automation can actually do to help with their work, right? Secondly is they have this desire to actually help themselves and their coworkers on using technology for their work, right? To make work better. Lastly, which I think is the most important one, like what they say, every great journey begins with a single step, right? So several years back, all of them actually took the bold first step to automate something. They are your work process with all the safety net assured by the bosses, the training, and the tools provided. And then it kind of snowballed from there. They got projects after projects and their skills just developed further and further. So a few years back, the function decided to combine all of them together and make an abstract team. Yeah. That's inspiring. Thank you so much. What a great story. So if I may just summarize in two phrases, the beliefs I have would be all my wonderful and capable citizen developers. The pattern to their background is there's no pattern. You need to give everybody a chance, whichever background they come from. And two is think about it with all this, talk about inequality in a world, talk about digital divide in a world. By doing all this, we will not let the digital divide become a social divide. In fact, the digital tools today can bring society's teams and workers together to do more. That's great advice. And then that to me is what drives me to come to work every day and what, what, why we bring a kid to share our story to the world. Thank you very much. Well, Dennis and Mohamed, kid, sorry. Thank you so much for coming on theCUBE. A really fun and interesting conversation. Thank you. I'm Rebecca Knight for Lisa Martin. We'll be more with the cubes back with my back, back with more of theCUBE's live coverage of forward six. You're watching theCUBE, the leader in live tech coverage.