I intend to speak to amendments 79 and 80. In my view, one of the glaring gaps in the bill is the failure to tackle the issue of fair work. Scotland is facing a workforce crisis in social care. Chronic low pay and poor terms and conditions mean that staff are leaving the sector and choosing to work in retail, where the pay is better and the pressure is less. We need to value our social care staff and make it a career that people want to choose.

I am pleased to see my friend Angela Rayner, as part of a UK Labour Government, driving forward the Employment Rights Bill. However, we do not need to wait. We in the chamber can act today in areas that are devolved.

Amendment 79 would place a duty on the Scottish ministers, to the same extent permitted by any other enactment, to negotiate employment conditions for social care in Scotland through sectoral bargaining. The amendment would also require the Scottish ministers to

“give effect to any minimum rate agreed through sectoral bargaining”

when determining the funding allocation for

“adult social care in the annual Local Government Finance Settlement, and … issuing guidance in the Local Government Finance Circular”—

all of which are devolved.

I appreciate the concerns that the minister raised about the legal competence of the amendment. It is a matter that we have discussed before at some considerable length. Although I regard the amendment as being entirely competent—because it refers to sectoral bargaining in the context of the Scottish Government’s devolved functions and nothing else—I would be prepared not to move it if the minister could make a robust statement on the progress of the Government’s work on sectoral bargaining and its firm commitments for delivery.

Presiding Officer, you will appreciate my frustration: it has been more than four years since Derek Feeley published his report and the lack of progress on these matters is both frustrating and disappointing. As I said earlier, the Parliament should review its role in determining competence beyond stage 1, rather than leaving it to the Scottish Government, and I will write to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee to ask it to do that.

Amendment 80, which is not judged to be incompetent, would require the Scottish Government to publish guidance to commissioning authorities, including on sectoral bargaining processes and outcomes in contract conditions, contract notices, bid documentation, award criteria, contract awards and contract management. I have worked with the minister and her officials on other amendments to improve the implementation gap that exists in current procurement legislation and guidance. Amendment 80 seeks to go slightly further and ensure transparency and compliance with sectoral bargaining.