The Scottish Government should be less risk-averse, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes has said.
Ms Forbes – who also has responsibility for the economy – announced earlier this year she would be standing down at the next election, shocking Scottish politics.
Before the announcement she had been regarded as a potential future first minister to follow John Swinney, but decided to step away to be able to spend more time with her family.
Speaking to the PA news agency at her final SNP conference as an MSP, Ms Forbes urged the Government to become more willing to take economic risks, particularly around investments made by the Scottish National Investment Bank (Snib).
“I think also maybe there’s there’s probably too much risk aversion,” she said.
“In the investment side of things, if we’re too risk-averse, then you never back the new or novel ways of doing things.
“If you never back the new or novel ways of doing things, you might not find the better way of doing things.
“And I think that particularly in the economy space, there needs to be a bit more freedom that if the Scottish National Investment Bank makes an investment in a more risky proposition, and it fails.
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“That’s par for the course in the private sector, but in Scotland, it becomes headline news, and you can never fail.
“And that, I think, undermines – particularly in the economy space – the ability to try new, novel ways of doing things which might lead to better outcomes.”
Ms Forbes’s announcement earlier this year made her one of several members of the Cabinet standing down, including Finance Secretary Shona Robison, Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon and Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop.
If the SNP forms the next Government, John Swinney will have to build a cabinet from relatively inexperienced MSPs.
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But Ms Forbes has no concerns about any future SNP Government.
“In 2007, not a single member of Cabinet had ever been a minister before,” she said.
“They got a lot of good stuff done. And so no is the answer, because I think bringing in new talent, different experiences, different expertise, is good.
“And really the being a good minister is about listening carefully, being decisive, about taking action and being determined to see it through to conclusion.
“Those are transferable skills.”
