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Sorry—I should say that it would be a draft plan.

It is my intention that it be bound up as closely as possible, so that we do not lose any more time than necessary in setting the targets and producing the plan against them. I add that it is very much my intention that delivery on all the work that is going on this year will continue in the meantime.

No. I understand why you are asking the question, because there are a lot of complexities here. The energy strategy is not legally linked to the climate change plan, and it will not be delayed by what we need to do with the bill.

The energy strategy is nearing its final form. I am restricted in what I can say on what the Government intends to do for the rest of the year, because we are in a pre-election period, but I can say that the energy strategy is very much nearing final form, and it will not be delayed by the on-going work on the climate change plan.

Could you elaborate on when the UK Government brought that forward, Mr Lumsden, just to give me a bit more context?

I am just finding the text, Mr Lumsden, if you will give me one moment.

That forms part of the policy package that I set out with the statement, and I understand the committee’s interest in it. I am limited in what I can say about its development, but it is intended to be additional to the 6,000 charging points, to answer your question directly.

It is a development of what is a very common-sense measure, as far as I see it, which has been under development in Scotland for a number of years. It is a development in the sense that there are parts of Scotland where you can already travel with an integrated ticket—there are parts of our transport system where it has been rolled out—but the Cabinet Secretary for Transport will be looking to extend it across modes of travel right across the country. I understand that she is currently working on a business case and so on, because working with industry will be very important to making the system work.

I fear that I am getting into confirming programmes for government. I await advice from the permanent secretary about whether I am allowed to do that in a pre-election period. Without speaking to legislative programmes specifically, I return to the importance that I place on the work that is being done and the active consideration of the 1,700 or so consultation responses.

Yes, I will try to take all those issues. First, as I said earlier and the First Minister said in the chamber last week, climate change is one of four Government priorities, alongside eradicating child poverty, ensuring excellent public services and others. However, I would not take from the priority being framed as climate change the message that it excludes the natural environment, because the Government has always been clear that the climate and nature crises are twin, reinforcing crises and that they exacerbate one another when they are not dealt with and aid one another when they are dealt with.

On there not being ministers with explicit responsibility for biodiversity in their headline job title, I have sympathy with your concern in some respects but, if we tried to include every responsibility in a ministerial title, it would become unwieldy and difficult to manage. However, it is important to note that I, as the cabinet secretary, have responsibility for all the physical and marine environment and Gillian Martin, who was with you earlier, has specific and explicit responsibility for biodiversity, including endangered species, in her list of responsibilities, as published on the Scottish Government website.

That is akin to asking me to confirm legislative timetables and programmes for government, which I am not able to do because I await advice on what I can say in the pre-election period. I am sorry that I cannot confirm that. However, much as I said on the heat in buildings bill, I stress the importance of much of the work that Lorna Slater did under that umbrella, working for me as she was. Her work on the natural environment bill, the biodiversity strategy and its delivery plan was critical. I take the opportunity to reassert the importance that I place on the natural environment in our work to tackle the twin crises of climate change and nature loss.