6. To ask the Scottish Government how it will utilise its public sector procurement to ensure that companies that are in receipt of public sector contracts pay staff the real living wage and provide longer-term employment and training opportunities. (S5O-05135)

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 already requires public bodies to consider and act on opportunities to improve economic, social and environmental wellbeing through their procurement. That includes addressing fair work and applying community benefit requirements, which are key mechanisms that have been used for many years to secure targeted training and recruitment opportunities.

The Scottish Government is also using other mechanisms to encourage more companies to adopt fair work practices. The green port model is an exemplar of Scotland’s values and ambitions. It adapts the United Kingdom Government’s free port model by adding Scotland’s priorities to it. It requires operators and businesses who benefit from that package of incentives to adopt our fair work first approach, which includes payment of the real living wage, and the Scottish business pledge, which boosts innovation and inclusive growth within communities, upholds the highest environmental protections and contributes to a net zero economy.

It is great that the Scottish Government encourages companies to use the real living wage and to act on environmental priorities, but what monitoring does it carry out to ensure that public procurement actually delivers the real living wage to all employees who are covered by public procurement contracts? Surely it is a straightforward issue to require that in contracts that are signed by the Scottish Government and public sector organisations.

Does the Scottish Government recognise that, in Scotland, women, in particular, are more likely to be earning less than the real living wage? How will the Government target them specifically to enable them to overcome the additional barriers that they face in accessing training opportunities? How will it act on that to change the opportunities that will be available to people as we come out of the pandemic and recover from it?

On issues related to employment of women, Ms Boyack will be aware that my colleague Jamie Hepburn is overseeing a range of measures to address specific challenges in the labour market, including measures that aim to close the gender pay gap and to ensure that women and all groups in society who are disadvantaged in that regard are able to take full advantage of opportunities.

I turn to Ms Boyack’s questions on the real living wage. Some 92 per cent of all suppliers who were delivering live Scottish Government contracts during the past financial year made a commitment to pay it. Although that is encouraging, we continue to strive towards achieving 100 per cent.

As for monitoring, as part of their established annual reporting cycle in annual procurement reports, public bodies are required to report the number of contracts that they have awarded that have included fair work first criteria. Current monitoring arrangements for public bodies check whether a contract has been delivered in line with the agreed terms. In addition, contractors that commit to adopting the fair work first criteria in delivery of a contract are asked to include on their own website a statement highlighting their commitment to advancing those criteria for workers who are engaged on the contract.

A wide range of measures on monitoring is in place. As I have said, 92 per cent of all suppliers are already conforming to the fair work first requirements.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

We have a supplementary question from Willie Coffey.

I thank the Minister for mentioning green ports as an example of Government support for businesses that pay the real living wage and support fair work first. Is the Scottish Government ready to publish the prospectus to invite bids to establish fair green ports in Scotland? Might that process start before the parliamentary recess?

Yes, we are ready to publish the applicant prospectus. However, sadly, we cannot make any progress due to the UK Government’s inordinate and unacceptable delay in finalising its elements of the work. There is now a real risk that the pre-election period in Scotland will begin without that prospectus having been launched. That is why today I have published a draft version of our applicant prospectus for green ports in Scotland, which sets out the key measures that relate to devolved responsibilities—namely, those on tax and planning. We intend that the reserved elements should align with those in the free port bidding prospectus for England.

However, let me be clear: our requirements that green ports include implementation of fair work first principles and a robust plan for transition to net zero are red lines. We will not support any model that does not include those essential elements, and we will not engage in a race to the bottom.