Seòmar agus comataidhean

We will get into that in more detail in a moment, with questions from other colleagues.

I have a final question on the theme of problems. The Scottish Government recently announced the launch of a joint programme of engagement on council tax. The Government says that

“it did not want to risk restating the work of the Commission on Local Tax Reform”.

Given the thoroughness of the 2015 commission’s work, what more research do you think is needed? Are the conclusions likely to be any different from those of 2015?

It is good to have that made clear.

Yes—ban the bands.

Sara Cowan has indicated that she wants to come in.

Okay. Thanks very much for that.

Good morning and welcome to the fifth meeting in 2025 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. Mark Griffin MSP and Fulton MacGregor MSP are joining us online today, and we have received apologies from Emma Roddick MSP. I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are on silent.

The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items four and five in private. Do we agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

We turn to questions. We will try to direct our questions to specific witnesses in the first place, but if you would like to come in, please indicate that clearly to me or the clerks. That would be really helpful. Sara Cowan, please do that by typing an R in the chat function, and broadcasting will track that for us. There is no need for you to operate your microphones. We will do that for you.

We will cover a number of areas, including problems with the current system and the need for reform. We will go on to cover revaluation and the practicalities and politics of that. Finally, we will look at barriers to reform and how to address them. Other things might come up in the mix, as well.

I will kick off with a question about the problems—I was assigned that job. Despite all the commissions and the claims that council tax is unpopular, it has managed to survive for 32 years. From your perspective, what are the benefits, if any, of the current council tax system?

That concludes our questions, but I just want to thank Joanne Walker for making the point about taking control of the narrative. Indeed, a clear thread in your contributions has been the need for communication as we move forward with the process. I thank everyone for joining us and for a very helpful and illuminating discussion.

I suspend briefly to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

This morning, we have been having a conversation to try to get a better understanding of this process and the framework that will emerge from it, but you have sometimes said, “Oh, that is dealt with by a different team or department.” I would find it helpful if you could provide us with more information on the IFMI process. You have described what triggered it, but what legislation and strategy does it link back to?

For example, the Fisheries Act 2020 requires an ecosystems-based approach, good environmental status of the sea bed and so on, and there is the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and the marine strategy. There are all those legal requirements that we are trying to help you to meet, but there is now yet another process, which seems to have started a long time ago but is now producing something that we can see—it is like mycelia, when the mushrooms have fruited.

The agriculture directorate provides us with good maps that show why processes are being done, when they are coming online and which processes are parallel. It would be helpful to provide us with something similar so that we can ask better questions and know what we can ask you and what is the responsibility of other teams. That would mean that we could say, “Can you also bring the compliance team with you, because we want to know how this affects compliance and enforcement?”

It is good to see you all—and to see some of you again. Jim Watson has provided helpful context.

I want to touch on exploitation. You have described where the work has come from, but I am concerned that other pieces of work were going on. Has this work superseded that work? I want to get to the bottom of that. For example, at one point, there was a commitment to consult on a cap on fishing activity in inshore waters up to 3 nautical miles, but that seems to have disappeared in a puff of smoke—I cannot think of a marine metaphor at the moment.

Marine Scotland’s 12-point future fisheries management strategy committed to a consultation on marine protected areas and priority marine features by summer 2023. I am interested in why the marine directorate failed to deliver that. Will that consultation be carried out in the current parliamentary session, following that commitment?

We now have the IFMI programme, but it concerns me that we have not followed through on things that have come forward—we said that there would be a cap on inshore activity, and we made commitments on MPAs and PMFs—so how can the committee have certainty that the IFMI programme will be delivered? Why did you fail to deliver in relation to MPAs? How can we have confidence that the other things that are being brought forward will be delivered, given that the situation is urgent?