Seòmar agus comataidhean

We agreed to take the next agenda items in private, so I now close the public part of the meeting.

That is great—thank you for letting me know about that.

Minister, I have one more question around the EIAs. Who will pay for the environmental impact assessments that are associated with the MCAs? Will the planning authority be required to do so while the MCA scheme is being developed, or will the cost fall to the eventual developer?

I see that Ruairidh Anderson wants to come in as well.

I have a couple of questions to clarify the process around the environmental impact aspect of the masterplan consent areas. As I understand it, if a local authority designates an area as an MCA, it has to do an overall environmental impact assessment on the whole MCA. Is that correct?

The second item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 7 to 12 in private. Do members agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

The next item on our agenda is to take evidence from Ivan McKee, who is the Minister for Public Finance, on four Scottish statutory instruments. The Minister is joined by Scottish Government officials Kristen Anderson, who is head of development planning; Ruairidh Anderson, who is the senior policy manager; and William Carlin, who is the senior policy manager. I welcome the minister and his officials to the meeting and invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

I return to my first question; I want to dig in there a bit more. Why do we need to bring in flexibility? What kind of situation are you imagining where an LDP would need to be amended?

I will make a comment about a concern that I have already brought up in the evidence session. I absolutely want to see environmental impact assessments and I agree with the importance of their connection to a masterplan consent area scheme.

However, as things evolve, I want us to be vigilant and really aware that we might need to readdress EIAs where we start to understand that there is that complexity in relation to biodiversity that we were discussing earlier. We might need to revisit that approach if we see that masterplan consent area schemes are allowing us to run away and not give good enough consideration to what is critical for life in Scotland and life on earth.

The question is, that motion S6M-14815, in the name of Ivan McKee, be agreed to.

Motion agreed to,

That the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee recommends that the Masterplan Consent Area Scheme (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 [draft] be approved.

We turn to the final negative instrument. If members have no comments to make about the building regulations, is the committee agreed that we do not wish to make any recommendations in relation to the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

Okay, thank you.

We move on to questions on the national planning framework.