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Thank you for that.

Under agenda item 2, the committee will take evidence from three panels of witnesses as part of our post-legislative scrutiny of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, in our community planning inquiry. This is the second evidence-taking session in the inquiry. We are looking at the impact of the 2015 act on community planning and how community planning partnerships respond to significant events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the current cost of living crisis.

For our first panel of witnesses, we are joined in the room by Michelle Crombie, who is corporate strategy and community planning manager at Aberdeen City Council; Jennifer Lees, who is business partnership manager at North Lanarkshire Council; and Bernadette Monaghan, who is director of community empowerment and equalities at Glasgow City Council. We are joined online by Evonne Bauer, who is the executive officer fo place and community planning at East Dunbartonshire Council; and Shaw Anderson, who is partnership and development manager at Glasgow City Council. I warmly welcome our witnesses to the meeting.

We will try to direct our questions to specific witnesses to start with, where possible. When you would like to say something, please indicate that to me or the clerks. As Evonne Bauer and Shaw Anderson are appearing virtually, they should type the letter R in the chat function. We will then bring you in. There is no need to turn your microphones on and off, as we will do that for you.

Each committee member will explore a particular theme, and Annie Wells will start our discussion by asking some questions about the challenges that communities face.

The papers explain that “piked dogfish under ... 100cm” in length will be removed from the prohibited species list. However, that type of shark is still listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list, so I have strong concerns about allowing it to be caught. I would like the committee to write to the Government or Marine Scotland to ask for an explanation of how compliance with the total allowable catch and size rules for the species will be ensured, including through remote electronic monitoring on quota vessels.

Hello, Chris. It is great to see you here. One of the things that I appreciate is that you can think about and put yourself in 2045. You have touched on the subject of my question, which is about 80 per cent of agriculture emissions being from livestock, and the need to reduce those emissions.

We heard in the previous evidence session that the beef sector is at the level that will keep the sector functioning—400,000 cows. We also heard from the hill, upland and crofting farmer-led group representative that they need to keep their headage up, but you are saying that we need to bring it down.

I think that what you are saying—I need clarification—is that we need to look at diversification. In fact, in the previous evidence session, Jackie McCreery said that no farm is a single farm—what they do is always mixed. Can you expand on that?

Thank you for that. I will take that away and look into it further to try to understand in more detail what you are saying.

In relation to what is blocking mainstreaming, an issue that came up at last week’s meeting was around tenant farmers and the fact that some farmers have less than a year in their tenancy. Maybe Jackie McCreery could address that issue on behalf of everyone. If you have a short-term tenancy, it is difficult to start taking up some of the measures that we are talking about. Do we need to be looking at a different form of tenancy or at something to support people so that they feel that they can invest and move forward with the longer-term programmes?

I will direct this question because of time. There are two parts to it. I will direct the first part to Andrew Moir, because he is representing the arable sector, and possibly also to Jackie McCreery.

Last week, the committee heard that organics need to become part of the mainstream. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on that in the context of the arable sector. I understand that 20 per cent of what we grow in Scotland is food for people but 80 per cent is used for whisky and feed for animals, so there is the potential to support other sectors if we feed animals with organic feed.

But if we take the concern about the farm gate out of the picture, from the point of view of climate emissions and so on, is the organic way of producing—

I will have to take that away and have a look at it, because that is not what came out in last week’s meeting.

I like it that you call all those different elements the community planning family.

I am going to pick up the theme of local outcome improvement plans and locality plans, and I direct my first question to Carol Calder. Are local outcome improvement plans and locality plans the right mechanisms for tackling huge issues such as inequalities, poverty and climate change? Do they provide an opportunity to take a preventative approach?

Thanks very much. It is great to have that example of the Promise.

We will move on to the next theme. Data is something that we have been touching on, but not delving into. There are questions from Marie McNair.