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We scan the horizon for EU developments in the environment. We have just been talking about water, which is a key example of that: the new water directive has come through and we have done what we can to comply with it. Ecocide is another issue, which I know you are close to. I have sought advice and my view is that, in taking forward the right to a healthy environment via the human rights bill, we should be able to achieve a great deal of what the development of an ecocide law might do. I do not turn my mind away from doing something on ecocide domestically but, for now, I feel that some of those objectives are being taken forward in the right to a healthy environment. That work is being led by the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice.

I assume that the letter from the minister was from Ms Slater, because she is leading on the biodiversity strategy and the overlap with the proposed natural environment bill. As I understand it, she will go out to consultation on that in the summer, which will be the first step to gathering the public view that you have, rightly, asked about. I understand that the consultation will be in two parts. One part will be on the draft biodiversity strategy and the delivery plan that you mentioned and the other part will be about some of the early proposals for the natural environment bill and our intention to legislate for nature recovery targets.

That is the question for the strategy. I am not envisaging a change to legislation just now; I expect that it will be more a clarification of roles and a reinforcing of my expectation that, both before and after a flooding event, all agencies with responsibility work together and communities are really put at the heart of it. That is my objective.

It is not something that I discuss regularly with the UK Government.

I suppose that those measures are always in the toolkit. Right now, I do not foresee our having to do that. Our public water system is very resilient, thanks in large part to a great deal of investment that Scottish Water has made to provide resilience between areas. We have issued guidance, asking people to be very responsible about how they use the public water supply during periods of scarcity.

More vulnerable is the private water supply network in Scotland, with many supplies running dry right now. That is why we have made the bottled water scheme available very early. That is a way of dealing with it in the here and now, but we also have a longer piece of work on-going to see what would be required to connect those who remain on the private supply into the public network.

You made a good point about the difference in requirements between urban and rural Scotland. It is ever thus with transport. We have to understand the requirements and respond to them, and they will be different in rural and urban Scotland, as they are in Glasgow and London.

Alison Irvine might want to comment but, as you rightly pointed out, some of the funding is currently being used for scoping, planning and development, with installations expected to begin from 2024. It is about understanding the needs of different areas, and local authorities are very well placed to speak to that.

It is my intention, with a backstop of autumn this year, to set out next steps on the dualling programme. My principal objective is the quickest and most successful procurements that I can manage, ensuring value for money. All those strands are currently occupying a lot of time across the transport team.

I think that they were, for one key reason: just transition absolutely is oil and gas, but it is also broader than that. The climate change brief is a cross-cutting role across Government and so too is just transition, because for every decision that we make in the climate change space, which—as I have narrated today—is an enormous change agenda, it is very important that the just transition principles sit side by side with that and follow the progress on climate change throughout Government and everything that we are doing more broadly.

I think that it is the right thing to do. Just transition is not oil and gas—that is a huge part of it, but it is also agriculture, marine and transport, and everything that is encompassed in the climate change brief.

Alison Irvine could add a spot, if that would be helpful, or we can come back to you in writing.

In relation to all aspects of our journey to net zero, I expect there to be changes and developments in the way in which we account for emissions, particularly in the natural world. You are absolutely right to highlight blue carbon. It is often said to me that our understanding of blue carbon is now at the stage that our understanding of peatland emissions was at five years ago. I expect advances in that regard, as well as advances in technology, so everything that we do has to be iterative.

I will round off my answer by saying that we are statutorily bound to seek the Climate Change Committee’s advice on such changes at least every five years. We will continue to follow the legislation in that regard, so I expect that there will be adjustments to be made as we move through our annual targets.