It was interesting to catch up with Kate Forbes last week for an exclusive interview in which she answered questions on a broad range of business and economic topics.

Two of the key issues which featured were also covered in depth when I interviewed the Deputy First Minister in June last year, soon after she took up that post and the role of Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic.

The Scottish Government’s relationship with the business community was sharply in focus at that point and, while the spotlight on this is probably slightly less intense, it is still bright.

Asked if she believed the overall relationship between the Scottish Government and business had improved over the last year, Ms Forbes replied: “I think so. I mean, the first meetings I had when I became Economy Secretary was with all the business organisations one by one, to understand what their top asks were.”

Ms Forbes declared the Scottish Government had since then worked through the first programme for government, then the Budget last December, and now the most recent programme for government “to try and deliver against those asks”.

She said: “I think the business community understand that we can't do everything overnight, but we can either stop doing things that would otherwise have made the cost of business higher, or do........

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