 The next item of business is a member's business debate on motion 1890 in the name of Jackie Baillie on supporting women-led businesses in global entrepreneurship week. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put your anxious here on your feet before I've been called, you don't blame you. With those members who wish to speak, press the request to speak buttons now. I now call on Jackie Baillie to open the debate. Seven minutes, please, Ms Baillie. Thank you very much. It gives me great pleasure to open this debate about the importance of women in enterprise during what is global entrepreneurship week. This annual event is about getting more people involved in thinking about setting up in business. Tomorrow, there is a specific focus on women's entrepreneurship aptly named Women's Wednesday. Our ambition should be to have the focus on women's enterprise every day of the week and not just one. Let me start by paying tribute to the work of Women's Enterprise Scotland. Working together with its partners, Wales has ensured that Scotland is leading Europe on a best-practice approach to women's enterprise. Wales is celebrating this week by bringing together its ambassadors who come from all sorts of different businesses and backgrounds. They act as really encouraging role models for women starting out in business. The knowledge that someone has done it already, faced barriers but has overcome them is actually very empowering indeed. I very much welcome a lot of the ambassadors to the public gallery this evening. We will be moving to a cross-party group meeting on Women's Enterprise convened by my colleague Gillian Martin after this debate, and I would invite any members who are free to come along and learn. The contribution of women-led businesses to the Scottish economy is significant, but it could be even more substantial. While women represent 51 per cent of the population, just 20 per cent of businesses are majority owned by women. The OECD average is 30 per cent, so we are lagging well behind. Less than 2 per cent of UK working women are business owners compared to the OECD average of 10 per cent. Those stats are clearly not great. It is the case that the number of women-led small and medium-sized businesses has fallen from 22 per cent to 20 per cent since the Scottish Government was elected in 2007. We all share an ambition to increase the number of women-led businesses, but what this demonstrates for me is that we need to get beyond the warm words and take substantive action. Women are underrepresented in many of the growth sectors targeted by Scottish Enterprise. The results from research carried out in 2013 sought to identify the number of female managing directors or CEOs in companies with a turnover of more than £5.6 million or with 250-plus employees. Of the 5,230 companies that fit that category, only 1 per cent were led by women. Just 1 per cent. Of that number, 408 were account managed by Scottish Enterprise, and that is good. But only 3 per cent of those were female led. Just 3 per cent. That shows what huge distance we still need to travel. It also shows, Presiding Officer, that there is a huge opportunity here. We know that women-led businesses contribute at least £5 billion in gross value added every year to the Scottish economy. If women-led businesses equaled those of men, the contribution to Scotland's GVA would increase by £7.6 billion, taking it to £13 billion each year. That is more than a 5 per cent increase in the size of the Scottish economy. It is truly staggering. There is such potential to grow our economy, but we need to do much more to encourage that to happen. We have a strategic framework for women's enterprise in Scotland, and you know that there is very little in it that I would disagree with. But where is the action? Where is the resource required to make it real? We need a step change in effort if we are to create opportunities to grow women's enterprise and unlock that potential. The Scottish Enterprise figure should not make for comfortable reading. It is an illustration of gender blindness in policymaking. Focus is placed on high-growth companies, and women-specific growth support is not provided because they do not meet the thresholds. They are largely excluded from growth support, yet we know that women's businesses are different. There are different skills and different experiences—sloer but often more sustainable growth—yet we do not recognise that difference in the type of support that we then go on to provide. Let me offer the minister some food for thought. Let's make sure that there is an understanding of the difference. All SIEs and HIE account managers should be given gender-appropriate training that reflects the differing nature of women's enterprise. Let's do that for business gateway advisers as well. There are some really good examples of best practice across the country, but it's not standard. It should be happening everywhere. SIEs also start collecting stats. I had a debate with Eddie on call K this morning. It was fascinating. I hope not to ever debate with him again, because he accused me of making up the stats, sitting at my desk and twiddling the figures somehow. Stats aren't optional. They are not a voluntary thing. I don't make them up, but if we are serious and mean business, we need to know about women's enterprise. The number and nature of businesses, what helps them to start up and what helps them to grow. At the moment, we don't really bother to count this in a systematic way. Even the Scottish Government's own publication, Business in Scotland, simply fails to disaggregate the data by gender, so we don't know how many are women led. So much more to do at local level with business gateway, at national level with SIE and HIE, and yes, the Scottish Government too. Let's identify what matters and then measure it, because only then will you know if you are succeeding. Let's set a target against which the enterprise agencies and government will be held accountable, because that will focus attention. Finally, let's have more gender-appropriate services. Let's review the existing approach, remove the barriers to women's setting up in business, because there is a clear need to mainstream agenda-sensitive approach in all entrepreneurship and growth policies so that we meet the specific characteristics, needs and challenges of women's setting up in business. Let me remind you, Presiding Officer, why it's so important. We could grow our economy by a staggering 5 per cent, more growth, more jobs, more revenue through taxes for our public services, at time of economic uncertainty, slowing growth and public sector cuts, what's not to like about this. I urge the minister to work with Women's Enterprise Scotland, local government and the enterprise agencies in devising that much more focused approach. We don't need more pilot projects, we don't need little announcements of small amounts of money, what we need is a step change in policy and resourcing. This needs to be mainstream, not just added on. Finally, Presiding Officer, because it is only when you do that, and encourage more women into business, that you will unlock the potential for our economy, and that potential quite simply is huge. I do enjoy your finalist, Ms Bailey. I called Julian Martin to be followed by Annie Wells. Ms Martin, four minutes please. Presiding Officer, if there is one number that you remember after listening to our contributions then make it this one, six, sorry, seven point six. Is your microphone up, Ms Martin? It is. It is. There we are. Right. That number is £7.6 billion. That's how many pounds will go into the Scottish economy if the same amount of women as men started up in business every year. How many jobs would be created if this were achieved? How much income tax would be generated? How many of those businesses might go on to be operating globally? And how many girls would be encouraged by looking at that changed landscape? The big question is, why is there still a stubborn gender enterprise gap? And what are we doing to close that gap and maximise our economic potential with globally and nationally? I've only four minutes, so I'll focus on just two reasons. Gender blindness and business support and endemic discriminatory attitudes in the business world. The Federation of Small Businesses found that over a third of women business owners had experienced discrimination as a business woman. Instances in which their role in the business was mistaken or an assumption made that a male employee was the business owner were common. A Glasgow business woman that I know runs two very successful bars in the city with her husband and she told me of continued instances where suppliers would automatically presume who was her husband they should speak to with regard to business decisions. I have to tell you one incredible instance of this woman and her husband visiting a brewery as potential clients. On arrival, the brewery manager suggested to her husband that, quote, your wife might like to have a browse in the gift shop while we have our meeting. Is it any wonder he lost out in their business? Clearly, we've worked to do before attitudes like this are a thing of the past. What better way of tackling those attitudes than ensuring that enterprise is full of strong, successful women? Research and feedback continues to also highlight the issue and impact of structural discrimination for women-led businesses as they look to access enterprise support, which has been mentioned by Ms Bailey. She mentioned that only 3 per cent of Scottish Enterprise managed accounts are female-led and criticism is focused on the narrow parameters of the criteria on which the support is allocated. When it comes to talking about their success, research shows that women are more modest and less likely to see their businesses prospering even when they are reporting higher profits than their male counterparts. Turnover is not their only priority. Women-led businesses view growth as a sustainable process rather than a fast, high trajectory and focus on broader community measures such as employment, fair working practices, quality of service and product rather than just turnover. 78 per cent of respondents to the Women Enterprise Scotland survey stated that services should be more aware of the differences in support needs between women and men admises with appropriate peer support that has been listed as being particularly desirable. I, too, welcome to the Parliament two groups of incredible women entrepreneurs, some of whom are in the public gallery right now. We have business ambassadors from Women Enterprise Scotland who are playing a vital role in mentoring other women starting out in or growing their business. Tonight, in the cross-party group I convene on women in enterprise, we will hear from wives and partners of servicemen who have just completed the first Women Enterprise Scotland business creation course at Glencourt Barracks. In just 10 weeks, trading businesses have been started by women who were previously economically inactive. I would encourage those mainstream business support agencies to look at how those successful support programmes have worked and be open to adopting some of their innovative mentoring strategies. Because global entrepreneurship does not happen without the right kind of support and if we still have a gender enterprise gap in 2016, we must look again at how we nurture the seedlings of small businesses that are run by women so that the female global entrepreneurs of the future get the best possible chance of being discovered. I thank you very much. I call Annie Wells. We are followed by Kezia Dugdale, Ms Wells. I want to echo the sentiments from the chamber today regarding the great work of Women's Enterprise Scotland and the Association of Scottish Businesswomen in supporting women into business. I thank Gillian Martin for setting up the newly formed CPG on women in enterprise. Women play a pivotal role in the economy across the UK, and those businesses led by women contribute billions to the economy. Since 2010, there has been an increase of about 170,000 small and medium-sized enterprises or SMEs in the UK, and those businesses contributed around £85 billion per year in JVA to the UK non-financial business economy. Real progress has been made that we now have the highest number of women in work on record, and there are no longer any male-only boards in the FTSE 100. However, I am under no illusion that more needs to be done by both the UK and Scottish Governments. There is widespread consensus that a better gender balance would benefit our economy, and as Jackie Baillie has rightly pointed out, if there was equal participation of women in business, the contribution of Scotland's GVA could increase by as much as £5.5 billion. Further analysis shows that only 31 per cent of women feel that they have the skills to start a business compared to nearly half of men, and nearly 50 per cent of women, as compared with under 40 per cent of men, see that the fear of failure would stop them from starting a business. What would improve the situation and constitute a gender-appropriate approach to all enterprise and growth policies? It should not be the case that women have to choose between a successful career and having a baby. They should always be able to pursue their goals. That is why I welcome the Scottish Government's plan to raise the number of childcare hours to 30 hours a week in line with the UK changes, as well as a later commitment to a more flexible system. I also welcome the UK Government's introduction of a new shared parental leave scheme, benefiting mothers in Scotland. However, encouraging women into business also depends, as we have seen by the figures, on the advice and support that is an offer, as well as the wider message given to women that they are capable of starting their own business. A survey of women-owned businesses in 2014 found that mentoring was a popular choice among respondents. Nearly a quarter stated that they would like a mentor in the future, and those that had been mentored, 90 per cent said that they felt that it had been helpful. Women's Enterprise Scotland has been instrumental in that regard, championing gender-specific enterprise support and a network in which women can collaborate and communicate. In the region that I represent in Glasgow, I was pleased to see the work of Scottish Women in Business, a charity organisation that holds monthly networking events that allows women to meet and do business. I was also encouraged last year to see that the UK Government's announcement of £50,000 of funding to create networking opportunities for women in business through its Meet a Mentor scheme. The example of Monica Coyle, who, after attending a Meet the Mentor meeting in Glasgow earlier this year, went on to start her own fledgling enterprise, Positive Pulse Scotland, has shown that these methods work, and I welcome any continued initiatives in that regard. If we are to see the equalisation of women in business, we should be bold in our approach. Of course, I welcome the number of women in business, but I echo the sentiments of those in the chamber today and that of Jackie Baillie's motion, in that much more needs to be done. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I congratulate Jackie Baillie on securing this debate this afternoon and pay tribute to her efforts in this field. I also want to pay tribute to another group of people, and I never thought that I would do this in this chamber or indeed in my political life, and that is pay tribute to the bankers. If the chamber will let me explain myself over the next few minutes, I would be very grateful to them for that. Not just any bankers, but particularly the Royal Bank of Scotland, who in particular are the market leaders when it comes to supporting women in business. RBS has 400 women in business specialists across the whole of the United Kingdom working with female entrepreneurs every single day. They have produced a report in their most recent entrepreneurship monitor just to talk about the differences between the type of support that women and men need when they are in business, and they do caution us by saying that those are small differences, but they are consistent throughout all the times that they have done this monitoring report. The types of reasons why women might be less likely to go into business, as opposed to men, are a fear of failure. They are more likely to think that from the offset that they are going to fail. They worry more about finding start-up money in the first place to take that leap into business. They worry more generally about the economic situation facing their country, and they also worry more than men about their own skillset—the abilities that they may or may not have—to take that leap into business. When you also start to examine the type of businesses that they set up and what success looks like to them, the measures of success are different for women than for men. Women tend to be far more interested in producing a quality brand. Surprisingly, the men are more interested in making a quick buck. There are substantial changes and differences in that. The conclusions that I would seek to draw from that is that women do not face any greater challenges than men necessarily to access business. They face different challenges, and any economic strategy that a Government should be arguing for needs to cater for differing needs. If we end up with an economic strategy that is classically determined towards those needs of men, we will lose out on the opportunity of women stepping into business for the first time. As other speakers have mentioned, this is an economic imperative for us all to overcome these banners because of the potential economic growth that could come from it. The figure that is mentioned in the RBS report is a potential £60 billion worth of additional revenue for the UK economy, which we all know would be critical to our own public services. There are two reasons why I wanted to thank the bankers. One was just RBS's commitment to doing this work and identifying those reasons from their own experience. The second is the money that RBS put directly into entrepreneurial spark, which members across the chamber may be familiar with, which is direct help to support not just women but everybody in terms of taking that leap into business. I have had the great pleasure of visiting entrepreneurial spark in Brighton, Glasgow and just yesterday in Edinburgh in my home city. I was struck by the fantastic work that has taken place there. RBS has also done an evaluation of its own work. It is very interesting that the average age of a woman who accesses entrepreneurial spark is 30, and the average age of a man is 52. When I asked RBS to perhaps explore some of those reasons why, the reality was that the type of women who would use entrepreneurial spark would be those returning after a period looking after their kids, returning to work full stop, whereas for men it was a change in career. Something happened in their life a crisis point, which meant that maybe they'd left the army or a service and they were then seeking to access business from that perspective. I met five inspirational women yesterday. One of them is setting up an urban dance company. Somebody else is providing social media expertise for Edinburgh airport through their own company. One has set up a marketing agency to pitch for major events to bring to Scotland. Another one is developing 21st century harnesses for children, and another two women, in fact, have set up a healthy chocolate factory. If women could achieve anything in this world, chocolate that is good for you is happening in Stirling right now. I have made a personal commitment to all those five women that I will do what I can to support them in business, although the chances are far more likely to get to the chocolate factory than I am to the breakdancing sessions anytime soon. Just to conclude the lessons from that experience, it was clear to me that to help women to succeed in business, what we need is a combination of collaboration and environments like entrepreneurial spark that help women to overcome those barriers. They are not any greater than anyone else's, they are just different, and we need an economic strategy that recognises that. The breaking news will be healthy chocolate, Ms Doug Dailing. That's all we'll remember from your speech. Ivan McKee, to be followed by Alison Harris. I thank Jackie Baillie for bringing out this debate to the Parliament and allowing us the opportunity to explore the important issues that it raises. Scotland in general needs to be more enterprising. We suffer from a lack of start-up businesses, a problem that is decades old, but hopefully we are now starting to see some advances in recent years. Fixing that requires a combination of changes in attitudes and in policy. In some sectors of society, we have further to travel than in others. We see it in a lack of aspiration across many of our most deprived communities. We see it in low levels of business activity across marginalised group and society. We see it in the stark contrast in business start-up rates and other key economic metrics between genders. It is on the enterprise gender gap that we focus on today. The motion mentions some numbers taken from Women's Enterprise Scotland framework document from 2012. If women started business as we have heard at the same rate as men, that would earn another £7 billion to the gross value add of Scotland's economy, a useful 5 per cent boost to the growth rate. However, I believe that the size of the prize is potentially far, far greater. The culture of doing business is contagious, embedding it transforms attitudes and performance, creating more women-led businesses would lead to the creation of more men-led businesses and jointly led businesses too. That is not a zero-sum game. Business start-up requires creativity, seen opportunities where others don't in figuring out new ways of meeting demand. Women often bring a different perspective to problems, a different appreciation of market needs and a different understanding of how to successfully satisfy them. We cannot afford not to engage the innovative talents of half of the population. In my constituency, the East End Network's connection meets on a monthly basis at Drygate, promoting all kinds of businesses locally-enabled led by Fona Colburn Brown. Shown that women can not only start and lead businesses, they can ensure to enable the structures that help those businesses to grow. Women are often great networkers, a key element of business growth and success. Women's Enterprise Scotland, the organisation leading the way on this issue, makes some simple recommendations to support and encourage more women-led businesses to start-up. Gender balance panels and role models are appropriate language, tone and image, literature and advertising, utilising and promoting through existing networks to ensure good gender balance at events. Challenging gender stereotypical attitudes that restrict the start-up and growth of women-led businesses will deliver benefits, not only here but in other areas of the economy where gender imbalance is marked. The pay gap is one of the most significant of those, and the need for more women in senior positions across the private, public and third sectors is another. The issue of home work balance, including childcare responsibilities, is correctly identified as a major barrier to women-led enterprises. A recent Scottish Government report on the gender pay gap highlights underlying drivers that work against more women in business, one of the most significant being persistent attitudes towards stereotypical roles of women and men at home and in the workplace. A view across society that is preferable for women rather than men to take on more of the work disruption associated with having a family. Family-friendly structures are often mentioned as having a role to play and enabling women to play more of an active economic role. However, we will only make the huge strides that we need to make to equalise women's participation in business when we tackle the societal norms regarding gender stereotypical roles. More women in business and more dads looking after the kids are two sides of the same coin. Shared parenting is a key driver of gender balance in the economy. To conclude, Presiding Officer, the appetite for growth is there. 87 per cent of women-led businesses want to grow. We need those businesses to thrive, to support our economy and to enable the women who lead them and many others who will follow in their wake the opportunity to realise their potential and contribute to Scotland's economy. Thank you very much. I have caught Alison Harris of the last speaker in the open debate. Ms Harris, please. Deputy Presiding Officer, can I thank Jackie Baillie for initiating this important debate and saying that, as a woman who in a previous life ran my own business, I'm delighted to contribute. Don't take a job, make a job. Most people across the UK are following this maxim as they see self-employment as offering challenges and hopefully the prospect of good rewards. Unfortunately, still too few of this number are in Scotland and fewer still are women, with men still twice as likely as women to start up businesses. Indeed, with only 21 per cent of Scotland's small and medium-sized businesses being solely led by women, there is a continued need to encourage a high level of business start-ups from women and, in particular, from young women and those from minority backgrounds. The headline figures indicate that over 70,000 Scots women are registered business owners and almost 100,000 are self-employed. Those businesses contribute a minimum of £5 billion to the Scottish economy. However, the numbers involved are proportionately lower than in most other high-income countries and it has been estimated that if the rates of business start-ups between men and women were equal, then a further 100,000 businesses would be established in Scotland. Indeed, with the Scottish Government figures showing that a decline in the number of new Scottish businesses, whilst it is still rising rapidly across the rest of the UK, the contribution that women can make to boost business start-ups is more vital than ever. Scotland has 210 small businesses per 10,000 of the population, much less than the rest of the UK, and employment in Scotland is far more reliant on larger companies. Businesses drive growth in the economy and women can play an important part in bridging the shortfall of business start-ups in Scotland. Women already in business relish the challenges, independence, rewards and some flexibility in working hours, particularly for childcare arrangements as positive reasons for having taken the plunge. The ability to adapt to the range of skills necessary to run a successful business come readily to women, as it does obviously to men. Running a budget, dealing with the issues and problems as they arise, administrative work, thinking for the longer term and the ability of dealing with the inevitable setbacks are values mown well to most women, multitasking. Some skills are within individuals, some can be learned, but the framework for running a successful business is heavily influenced by others. That is why we need to foster a true spirit of enterprise in Scotland for everyone and from every background, and all Governments need to play a part in this, Westminster, Scottish Government and local Governments. Make setting up businesses easier with less red tape, less formed furling and less by also keeping taxes as low as possible. The importance of suitable childcare provision is one that we have discussed recently, but also councils and others need to ensure that they can provide the right mix of retail and commercial units suitable for start-ups. Deputy Presiding Officer, over two years ago, the framework and action plan for women's enterprises was published. By and large, a good document which recognised the need to increase entrepreneurship, if not the route to get there, but a document that needs to do more to put the vision into action and not just to be yet another document from the Scottish Government left to gather dust. The Scottish Government's encouragement and support for people to set up their own businesses must be by action, not words. Happily, there are excellent groups promoting women in business. Excuse me. The Association of Scottish Business Women offer great support and networking to both women's starting-up businesses and to more established enterprises. They give encouragement through their awards scheme and, at this point, can I congratulate Dorothy Henk of 4th Valley Chamber of Commerce and Falkirk for being named as one of the winners of the 2016 Women of Inspiration Awards. Many other groups also do great work in enabling the enterprise and creativity of women. I commend them all and once again thank Jackie Baillie for raising this topic. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll call on Jamie Hepburn to wind up the Government minister. Seven minutes, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I begin by thanking Jackie Baillie for bringing forward this evening's debate. I think that it's particularly appropriate as she set out at the outset, given it is this week global entrepreneurship. We can thank members for their contribution. It is an opportunity for me to outline the commitment of this Government, the commitment that we have made and continues to make to supporting women in business. Like others, I absolutely welcome the role of Women's Enterprise Scotland. It is a vital role. It is an important role. Let me readily respond to Jackie Baillie's very generous invitation to work with Women's Enterprise Scotland that I will be very happy to do so. I met Women's Enterprise Scotland earlier today. I was very pleased to meet some of their ambassadors earlier today during one of their sessions at Edinburgh city chambers. Like others, I welcome some of the ambassadors to the public gallery this evening. When I met them earlier today, I was interested to hear about the two-day training programme that they are undertaking, which will give them additional skills and experience to help other women to start businesses. I look forward to hearing more about their first day in Edinburgh when I joined the cross-party group on Women's Enterprise later this evening. I should say in case Ms Baillie wonders where I am after I have first attended the reception with the construction industry training board. In that regard, I should thank Gillian Martin and other members for getting the cross-party group up and running it. It is a group that I will be very happy to continue engaging with over my time in post. The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the number of women in business. The latest statistics show a 35 per cent increase in the number of women who are self-employed since the Government came to office. That is the highest since records began. Let me say that I would recognise though that those are figures that we would need to get underneath the skin of. It will not entirely be driven by the desire for women to take forward their own entrepreneurial activity, but many of those figures will have been driven by such a desire. I agree absolutely with the point that Jackie Baillie made. There is much room, considerable room for movement in a positive trajectory. We are behind other comparative nations and clearly we need to do much better in that regard, not least for the very important principle of seeing greater equality in the labour market to which I will attempt to turn in some more detail if time allows. However, I think that the point was well made by a number of members, Jackie Baillie and Kezia Dugdale, and others around the fact that the economy could be boosted significantly if there were as many female-led businesses as those led by men. It would evidently be good for our economy, but of course there would be benefits to public revenues as well. I was very pleased when I met with the ambassadors earlier today during that meeting to be able to announce further funding of £200,000 to support female entrepreneurship. The funding will support the Women and Enterprise Ambassadors programme recognising the central importance of the role of mentoring that Annie Wells set out. We will support investing women at a project to help female-led businesses to become investment ready and bring them together with female investors. We will support Women Enterprise Scotland to work with partners across our enterprise agencies to deliver a report and the best practice towards tackling the gender gap within Enterprise. It will support the Scottish Chambers of Commerce to develop and pilot a new Women's Enterprise Accelerator programme to work with women-led small businesses. Ms Bailey seems itching to get in with rent on my own. You both detected that, Ms Bailey. I thank the minister for allowing me to do so. I recognise that the £200,000 is welcome. It is a continuation of the funding that was already in place. Does he not agree with me that in order to create the step change that I know he wants to create, we need to do an awful lot better than that? Minister. Indeed, I am glad to facilitate the opportunity to allow to facilitate Ms Bailey's desperation to intervene on me, I should say. I think that I set that out at the outset of my remarks, Ms Bailey. I think that there is considerably more we can do. I mentioned earlier positive contributions that members have made today and the examples of how Women Enterprise are supporting women in business, as is frequently the case in members' business debates. As should be the case, many members highlighted good practice in their own areas. Jackie Baillie also mentioned the issue of the statistics that we collect. Unfortunately, I did not listen to call K this morning, Ms Bailey, so I am not entirely o-fay with her exchange with Eddie. She said that she hopes never to have to debate with him again. I am not sure how Eddie feels about that in particular, but I would agree with the point that Ms Baillie makes about the quality of statistics, the quality of data that we are collecting. That is why, in the labour market strategy, we have committed to improving the quality of data that we gather. That is also set out in the enterprise and skills review. Having mentioned that review, it will have to look at all factors of supporting enterprises. I will certainly take back the not unreasonable points that Ms Baillie has made about the role of our agencies in supporting women in enterprise and making sure that that is fed in to the next stage of the review. Kezia Dugdale surprised us all, not least with her suggestion that chocolate is good for us, which is welcome news for us all. I can see particularly for you, but also in her praise of— I missed that. Was that some kind of insult that flew past me? It was not an insult, I just heard you cheering merrily that chocolate was good for us, but she mentioned her praise for bankers and the role of RAS being an important reflection of the critical role of businesses in that agenda, the role of those who are doing good work to talk about the benefits of that for others to follow. Annie Wells and Alison Harris set out the importance of childcare. I would agree with that, although I would caution against the assumption that I always have to be predicated on the basis of supporting women into the labour market in relation to that agenda. I recognise that it is part of the agenda, but equally it has a role to play in supporting men into the labour market as well. I think that we need to be cautious about the type of language we engage in when we are talking about that agenda, but of course work is under way to increase hours of childcare-provided and flexible provision. As ever, I see that I am coming up against it in relation to the amount of time I have available to respond to the debate. I recognise that gender equality goes much wider than just to enterprise. It is a fundamental ambition of the Scottish Government to ensure that men and women have equal opportunities across employment and participation in the labour market. It is essential for our potential as a nation. I think that it is a critical part of the fair work agenda that we are taking forward through the fair work convention. I was very pleased to be able to set out in the labour market strategy some £500,000 for the fair work convention to seek to roll out their framework in workplaces across the country. It is also why I was delighted to announce funding for Equate Scotland for the women's returners project, the first element of our women's returners initiative, but clearly, and I would absolutely accept the critical importance in seeking fairness in our labour market for doing rather better than we are in relation to women in enterprise. There is no single catch-all method of doing that, but I certainly believe that the support of organisations such as Women's Enterprise Scotland who are not only recognising organisations and businesses have a responsibility to behave ethically and support this agenda, but trumpeting that and doing so can be good for business in our wider economy. I believe that we can make the progress needed to support women into the world of enterprise, the cost of failure to do so will be too high, and the benefits of achieving such are too great for us not to seek to make that progress. Thank you very much, minister. That concludes the debate, and I'll close this meeting.