Image source, bbc

Ms Baillie pivots to "procurement hurdles" and how to get over them.

Peter Reekie from the Scottish Futures Trust accepts it would be wrong to say there were no issues.

But he points out procurement is difficult to do well and the required transparency complicates things.

That is not wrong, it is right, but it gives procurers a lot do he explains.

The SFT chief executive says we must ensure the right sort of projects appeal to the right sort of contractors.

Most procurement comes through health boards and local authorities, Mr Reekie points out, and he accepts more could be done.

My organisation is trying to do better, to try improve things over time, he says.

Ms Baillie says Scottish Water uses a lot of agency workers to supplement its own workforce.

Mark Dickson says agency workers are used to deal with peaks and troughs, or when a certain skillset is required for a period of time.

He is unable to give a percentage of agency workers as a proportion of overall workforce, though he says in his portfolio of capital invest it flexes between 15-20%.

Mr Reekie says people must have sight of the pipeline and the capacity to invest.

Labour MSP Jackie Baillie asks what order of magnitude of investment will Scottish Water need and who will pay for it.

Will it be the customer through their water charges she asks.

Mr Dickson says investment currently comes from customer charges and is supplemented through borrowing.

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The Scottish Water representative says he cannot say how future investment will be paid for.

Ms Baillie asks again if current bill payers will have to pay for the investment.

Mr Dickson says he is not best placed to answer this but reiterates that is the case at the moment, supplemented by borrowing.

Mr Dodds from Jacobs says industry largely reacts to client needs and has always been able to ramp up its work when required to do so.

But tier 2 projects will tend to suffer if there is any pull on skills and resources, he warns.

Having a wide supply chain base in Scotland is very important because at the moment it can fairly easily be maxed out, Mr Dodds suggests.

Mark Dickson from Scottish Water says over the next ten years capability and capacity for certain types of work will have to grow.

He adds this is linked into the forward planning of the pipeline, external.

Image source, bbc

David Stewart calls for the workforce to be modernised, with the issue of the ageing workforce coming down the tracks.

The SFHA representative highlights the difficulty in attracting people to bricklaying in particular.

There is a challenge around the number of new apprentices, accepts Mr Stewart.

Tory MSP Dean Lockhart seeks views on the role of the future Scottish National Investment Bank in infrastructure development

Peter Reekie from Scottish Futures Trust explains the bank will be able to provide finance to projects in the private sector but where there is a wider policy interest, such as renewable energy.

It won't be able to fund things like schools, hospitals and roads because this would just be seen as capital funding and will not deliver any additionality.

Legislation to set up a Scottish national investment bank was published at Holyrood last month.

The Scottish government wants to have the bank up and running by 2020, with £2bn committed for investment in Scottish businesses over 10 years.

Image source, bbc

Søren Kirk Jensen calls for infrastructure governance to be improved to prevent projects running over time and over budget.

You're sitting in one of those projects, says Mr Wightman.

"I'm well aware of that," replies Mr Jensen.

Scheduled to open in 2001, it did so in 2004, more than three years late with an estimated final cost of £414m.

A White Paper published shortly after Labour's 1997 general election victory initially put the construction cost of a Scottish Parliament building at between £10m and £40m.

Where is the SFT going in terms of financing infrastructure, asks Green MSP Andy Wightman.

Peter Reekie says there will need to be financing to deliver the planned increase in infrastructure investment, which may include private financing.

The SFT is currently looking at model options, he adds.

Mr Wightman asks whether there is any merit in giving the public sector more of a role in private infrastructure markets.

We haven't considered public financing interventions, replies Mr Reekie.

Mark Dickson from Scottish Water says we can see ahead with reasonable accuracy up until 2021.

He adds the whole notion of a forward looking pipeline is very useful.

Image source, bbc

Green MSP Andy Wightman asks what more could be done to make the infrastructure investment plans more useful.

David Stewart of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations says housing has sometimes suffered in the electoral cycle where there is not enough agreement in how much housing we need.

Mr Stewart accepts there is no point in having a 20 year plan, but to some extent there should be broad consensus going forward.

Graeme Dodds from Jacobs says his organisation would like to see as much detail on the project pipeline as possible.

At the moment it is not good at pointing to projects that are coming, he tells the committee.

However we wouldn't want to see an expansion of the plan that degraded its accuracy, Mr Dodds adds.

Mark Dickson of Scottish Water agrees that more information on what is coming would be useful to allow for sufficient planning.

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Søren Kirk Jensen of CoST - the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative tells the committee very high level of infrastructure transparency.

However Mr Jensen adds the information is a bit fragmented, scattered, staggered and fractured on different websites, which takes time to access and diminishes its value.

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Peter Reekie from Scottish Futures Trust says many people in the industry have said more pipeline information would be useful.

"It's one thing knowing what's coming, but it's quite another thing knowing your organisation will be involved in what is coming," the SFT chief executive adds.

He adds there is good information on the overall activity, however you have to look in different places for individual projects.

A central place with this information would address this, he says, adding everyone would like to see more information published.

SNP MSP John Mason begins questions about the guidance given by the Scottish government on the project pipeline.

David Stewart from the SFHA says the 50,000 target for new affordable homes is "extremely welcome", though this is not technically part of the project pipeline.

Peter Reekie from the Scottish Futures Trust explains there is no single place to look for all investment in infrastructure, since the Scottish government, local authorities and other bodies all publish this information.

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Committee convener Gordon Lindhurst welcomes:

• Søren Kirk Jensen of CoST – the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative, external
• Peter Reekie from Scottish Futures Trust, external
• Mark Dickson from Scottish Water, external
• David Stewart of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, external
• Graeme Dodds from Jacobs, external

Image source, PA

The Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee will begin shortly.

It is continuing its inquiry into construction, external, looking at economic impact, access to finance, investment, skills, and procurement.

Read the committee papers here., external