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Thank you for that. Mark Griffin, do you have another question?

Thank you for that very enthusiastic response.

What is the Scottish Government doing to support training of surveyors and fire safety assessors to ensure that there is a sufficient pool of qualified staff to deliver the single building assessment programme within a reasonable timescale?

Donna Birrell would like to come in.

Thank you. That is such a stark example. You talked about tender costs being way in excess of your assumptions. Do you have a sense of where those costs are coming from?

Thank you for that insight. That is really useful.

Donna Birrell, do you have anything that you want us to hear, or have we heard it all?

Thank you for the confirmation. What are the practical implications for developers of the new building regulation 3.28, which requires buildings to be designed to reduce the risks to occupants’ health from overheating, and what impact might the regulation have on home owners’ use of their property?

Thank you very much. Finally, the committee heard calls for greater independent monitoring and assessment of building work through use of clerks of works, which is something that our predecessor committee called for. What is the Scottish Government doing to require or facilitate use of clerks of works?

I would like the committee to ask the Scottish Government why it has chosen to make permanent changes through regulations 2 and 3(7)(b) and what the

“new approach of targeted inspections using relevant data and improved education and engagement with applicants”

means in practice, including what data the targeting is based on.

The policy note states:

“The 2022 Regulations will have no impact on stakeholders or members of the public as they simply assist and enable officials to carry out controls despite the coronavirus pandemic and related restrictions.”

If the regulations mean that there will be fewer on-the-ground inspections on farms and crofts that have not complied with rules on protecting soil and water quality and environmental protection, is it not the case that they will have an impact on the local environment as well as on biodiversity and the climate and will therefore impact on the public? I would like the committee to ask the Government that question.

As introduced, the bill requires the Scottish ministers and relevant authorities, when drafting their good food nation plans, to

“have regard ... to the scope for food-related issues to affect outcomes in relation to”

a specified list of high-level outcomes. The amendments in this group speak to the importance of ensuring that we take a whole-systems approach to food policy. It is vital that the good food nation plans cover all the many policy areas that can affect, or can be affected by, food. Accordingly, amendments 73 and 78, in my name, would add “climate change” and

“wildlife and the natural environment”

to those high-level outcomes.

I felt that simply stating “the environment” as a policy area that ministers and relevant authorities must have regard to was too broad and amorphous, and that the addition of climate change and wildlife and the natural environment would help them to focus on how the good food nation plans and the policies in them can make an impact on achieving emissions reduction targets and net zero, tackling the nature emergency and meeting future biodiversity targets.

The other amendments in the group, which were lodged by Jenni Minto, Rachael Hamilton, Monica Lennon and Beatrice Wishart, also seek to make further provision about what ministers and relevant authorities must have regard to when preparing their plans.

Jenni Minto’s amendments 36, 37, 50 and 51 will satisfy calls from stakeholders such as OneKind and Food Train for the inclusion of animal welfare and social care in the bill. I particularly welcome those amendments, as well as the amendments from Rachael Hamilton and Monica Lennon, which seek to include education and child poverty in the list.

I move amendment 73.