Seòmar agus comataidhean

In relation to the timeline for the bill, you said that it would be in year 5 of the parliamentary session. Can you give us any more detail?

It is, and I understand some of that. The information that has been published gives a figure 1,482 buildings, which is quite a large number. Of those, some work has been done on five buildings. If we compare that to the figures that have been published for the rest of the UK—in Wales, work on 37 buildings has been completed, and is under way on a further 86 buildings; and in England, remediation work has been started or completed on 1,608 buildings, which is 42 per cent of the stock—it is pretty clear that the numbers in Scotland are significantly behind those for the rest of the UK. Will you set out why you think that that might be the case?

In 2020, I think that the Government received £97 million of Barnett consequentials for remediation. You are saying that that money is still available for the work?

Good morning and welcome to the 29th meeting in 2024 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. We have received apologies from the convener, so I will chair today’s meeting in his place. We are joined by Audrey Nicoll, who, in the convener’s absence, is attending as a substitute member.

I am pleased to welcome Craig Hoy as a new member of the committee. Before I invite him to declare any relevant interests, I record the committee’s thanks to Jamie Halcro Johnston for all his hard work on the committee.

I invite Craig to declare any relevant interests.

Were those figures from 2021?

Thank you, cabinet secretary. I will begin the questioning, before bringing in other members of the committee.

There was a mixed response to the consultation; I think that eight respondents were in favour of the proposal, six were against and two were of no position. I would like you to respond to a couple of the queries that were raised by members of the public. First, some people felt that the order might set a precedent for people to be taxed twice, and others believed that some house builders might be asked to pay when their work would not require remediation. How do you respond to those concerns?

I will take some questions from committee members now.

That would be appreciated, cabinet secretary.

You are looking to move to 100 projects in 2025-26.

So there are no further estimates of pace and flow beyond next year, in terms of completing the programme overall. You have not done that work.