Seòmar agus comataidhean

That would be super.

Item 3 is consideration of a negative instrument. Members will note that a letter from the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth in response to a query that was raised by the Parliament’s legal team is included with the papers.

As this is a negative instrument, there is no requirement for the committee to make any recommendations. As members have no comments on the instrument, are we agreed that we do not wish to make any recommendations in relation to it?

Members indicated agreement.

It is great to hear about that flexibility.

Thank you very much. Those responses are helpful.

I will move on to questions from Mark Griffin.

Please keep your answers brief, because Willie Coffey has two or three questions and we are rapidly running out of time.

Good morning, and thank you for being with us. You might have already answered my question, but I will come at the issue from a slightly different angle and see what comes out of that.

In a response to the committee, the Scottish Crofting Federation wrote about the damage that wild geese can cause to high nature value land and the world-renowned biodiversity on crofts and farms in crofting areas. Therefore, I would appreciate your professional opinion on how much of the land on crofting areas is of high nature value and world renowned for biodiversity, given that, in the biodiversity intactness index, Scotland is, sadly, 28th from the bottom out of more than 200 countries.

That is the first part of my question. The second part of it is the bit that you might have already answered. I would also appreciate your opinion on whether further reductions in wild geese populations are the best way to protect and enhance biodiversity in such areas. Is it the case that alternative measures might be more effective or should be taken alongside goose management programmes?

Good morning and welcome to the 27th meeting of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee in 2022. I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off.

The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 3, 4 and 5 in private. Do members agree?

Members indicated agreement.

That is very helpful. We should be aware of the point about the financial memorandum being old, with a lot having happened since it was published.

I will bring in Eddie Fraser.

I will move on to the role of local authorities. Should care services continue to be delivered by local authorities? If so, could you expand on the benefits and challenges of the current system? I would be interested to hear whether anyone has any experience in relation to rural and island local authorities.

That concludes our questions for this panel. I thank all the witnesses for coming to speak with us, sharing their important evidence and responding to our questions.

I suspend the meeting briefly, to allow for a change of witnesses.