The House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee has warned that Scotland risks repeating the mistakes of past deindustrialisation unless future industrial transitions are actively managed, with clear support for communities, skills retention and long-term economic resilience.
In its latest report, the committee draws on evidence gathered across five sessions held between April and October 2025, examining Scotland’s industrial legacy, the current state of shipbuilding and steel, and how effectively UK industrial policy reflects Scotland’s economic realities.
The committee concluded that Scotland’s experience over the past four decades shows the “profound and lasting consequences of industrial transition when communities are not properly supported”, pointing to entrenched worklessness, health inequalities and the erosion of core industrial skills. MPs warned that the loss of those skills is now forcing employers to look overseas, leaving former industrial communities at risk of being bypassed again.
The report argues that this context is particularly relevant as Scotland undergoes another major transition, most notably the shift away from oil and gas. MPs state that future transitions must be “a practical, deliverable commitment that supports communities, retains skills and ensures that no community pays the price of industrial change”.
To that end, the committee has launched two further inquiries to scrutinise how current policy is being implemented in practice. One focuses on GB Energy and the net zero transition, while the other examines how increased UK defence spending could support Scottish jobs and skills, including in shipbuilding and related supply chains.
Evidence heard during the inquiry highlighted persistent skills shortages despite Scotland’s industrial heritage. Participants at an engagement event in Ochiltree described how skilled industrial jobs have been replaced by lower-paid work with weaker conditions, while many of the same skills are now urgently needed. The report notes that defence shipbuilding has been particularly affected, citing press reports that Babcock recruited hundreds of welders from overseas due to shortages in the domestic labour market.
Industry witnesses stressed the importance of retaining local expertise. Sir Simon Lister of BAE Systems told the committee that Scotland’s shipbuilding workforce benefits from “four or five generations of shipbuilding”, creating what he described as an “innate” understanding of the craft and reinforcing the value of skills clustering.
The committee also raised concerns about how Scotland is represented within UK-wide industrial policymaking. While welcoming plans to place the Industrial Strategy Council on a permanent footing, MPs warned that the absence of a dedicated Scottish representative limits the council’s ability to understand Scotland’s “distinct economic and constitutional landscape”. They recommend that legislation establishing the council should explicitly require Scottish representation.
In reviewing the Government’s Industrial Strategy, the committee concluded that although the IS-8 framework broadly reflects Scotland’s strengths, it does not fully capture the diversity of the Scottish economy. MPs highlighted the omission of high-value sectors such as whisky, noting that the industry is globally competitive and central to UK exports. They warned that overlooking such sectors risks constraining growth in some of Scotland’s most successful industries.
All wibble. The people that managed Fergeuson Marine’s ferry disaster would be just as disastrous managing anything else. There’s also no money to pay for anything.