To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the recent CBI report, which reportedly suggests that businesses are preparing to “cut staff and raise prices”. (S6F-03764)

I was deeply concerned by what I read in the CBI report on business confidence in the United Kingdom. In my regular engagement with Scottish business, I hear directly that the impact of the recent employer national insurance contribution increases at a UK level is a significant factor.

The Scottish budget for 2025-26 includes a raft of measures to support business and economic growth, as well as enhanced measures to attract private investment.

The CBI’s monthly survey highlights weak hiring intentions, with business and professional services expecting a 20 per cent reduction in head count, while consumer services anticipate a sharper 44 per cent fall. Labour’s employer national insurance hike is a tax on jobs, and the decisions relating to it are already beginning to bite. What engagement has the First Minister’s Government had with the UK Government to get it to see sense and to rethink its daft decision to tax jobs, so that we can protect the Scottish economy?

I have raised the impact of the planned increase in reserved taxation with the UK Government and I wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer earlier this month. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government has also raised the issue with the Treasury.

We have made clear the wide-ranging concerns about the impact that the change—which was introduced with no consultation—will have on Scotland. The UK Government seems determined to ignore those concerns, but we will continue to raise the issue and the impact that it will have on the Scottish economy. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government will raise the issue with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury next month.

It seems to me that that particular decision is having a damaging effect on the UK Government’s growth agenda. Although I am wholly supportive of that agenda, that measure is counterproductive to trying to deliver growth in the economy.

The First Minister is entirely right to raise concerns about Labour’s tax on jobs, but the Scottish Government’s budget for the coming year, which he encourages us to support, does little or nothing to support businesses in Scotland. According to the Scottish Parliament information centre, spending on three key areas to help to grow the economy—the enterprise agencies, VisitScotland and employability schemes—has been cut compared with the past financial year, while the Barnett consequentials from rates relief that is available south of the border for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses are not being passed on in this budget, which short-changes Scottish business. Why is the Government not doing more to support Scottish business?

I know that Mr Fraser was a contender for the leadership of the Scottish Conservatives, but he has just given an answer that is directly contradictory to the position of his party leader. His party leader wants us to cut the budgets of agencies—he said that he wants us to get rid of them. However, Mr Fraser has just argued for an expansion of the budgets of economic development agencies.

For the record, I happen to think that Scotland today is extremely well served by our economic development agencies: Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise, VisitScotland and Skills Development Scotland. They work very well for Scotland, in that they attract significant investment and visitor numbers. We could add to that the capital investment for offshore wind, which we are increasing to £150 million; the £100 million for digital connectivity programmes that we are rolling out; the investment that we are putting into planning services; and the support that we have put in place for non-domestic rates relief, which is worth an estimated £731 million. All those measures show that this Government is on the side of business, as is demonstrated by business’s endorsement of our budget. I think that the Conservatives should support it.