Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you, Morag.

I will say a bit more about the process, because we have some folks online and some in the room. I will ask all of you to respond to my first question because we want to get foundational views, but we will try to direct other questions. Please indicate when you want to comment. If you are joining us online, please put the letter R in the chat box.

We have a specific question about that, which we will come to later. If there is time at the end, I will bring folks in to comment on anything that we have not raised.

People will be left in the dark around decisions that will probably arise quite quickly.

Thank you for that. We move to a question from Mark Griffin, who joins us online.

Annie Wells is joining us online.

I am glad that I asked whether you had anything more to say because those are very important points. On Ireland’s national marine planning framework, it is interesting that the Irish Cabinet ministers had to say in—I assume—the chamber how their framework was going to affect their particular areas of work.

We have heard loud and clear the requirements for resourcing and skills development.

We appreciate your coming in this morning. I see from Jim Miller’s copy of the national planning framework, with all the post-it notes, that you have been drilling down deeply. [Interruption.] Yes.

Those are the policies that will shape Scotland over the next 10 years; it is such important work. Thank you so much for sharing your organisations’ views with the committee.

Thank you, Liz. If they do not, please make sure that we hear what you want to say.

That was about the bigger picture. From talking to the minister, I know that he is very firm that the priority in the national planning framework is the climate and biodiversity or nature crises and how we can tackle them. In practical terms, what does the requirement for decision makers to give significant weight to the global climate and nature crises mean for development management and development planning across Scotland? I open that to anyone who wants to pick that up.

Thank you for that comprehensive response. I think that the committee will look at the subject later, in 2023.

Clare Symonds would like to come in. Could I ask everyone to keep their answers a bit more succinct? That would be helpful, because we still have quite a few questions to get through.

Clare Symonds was going to come in next on Paul McLennan’s questions on the development programme and monitoring.