Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 12 June 2024.
Gordon MacDonald
Scottish National Party
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support entrepreneurs and start-up businesses. (S6O-03554)
Kate Forbes
Scottish National Party
We have a clear ambition to support entrepreneurs and become a leading start-up economy. That is evident through the progress in the delivery of the national strategy for economic transformation; the “Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review” report; and the “Pathways: A New Approach for Women in Entrepreneurship” report.
Key successes include the £42 million Techscaler programme; two competitive funding rounds through the ecosystem fund and the pathways pre-start fund; and “The Entrepreneurial Campus” blueprint. Those initiatives are designed to foster entrepreneurial activity and support start-up businesses.
Gordon MacDonald
Scottish National Party
Despite promises that leaving the European Union would remove red tape, the most immediate impact of Brexit on entrepreneurs was the change in VAT regulations. With United Kingdom businesses now treated as those in a third country, VAT now applies to imports from and exports to most EU countries. Retail Economics and Tradebyte are reporting an 18 per cent drop in non-food exports from the UK to countries in the single market.
Will the Cabinet secretary say more about the impact that the Scottish Government expects that those checks will have on small Scottish businesses?
Kate Forbes
Scottish National Party
The impact of Brexit has certainly been painfully felt by both exporters and importers, who have seen trade with the EU become overcomplicated and saddled with additional costs. That is thanks to the fact that there are now new barriers to trade; supply chains have been disrupted; and food prices have been driven up. In fact, a recent National Audit Office report estimated that UK traders will face additional costs of £469 million a year. We are gravely concerned about those burdens, and we urge the UK Government to pragmatically align standards with the EU in order to abolish some of those burdens.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
