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I will pick up on that point first. Minister, you seem to be saying that, if the instrument is annulled, the panels will continue anyway.

Does the member share my view that a panel will not be created imminently and that, once the Government gets things corrected and has a system that we can all agree on, we can potentially have a panel, or something else, at that stage? The transport commissioner is not going to create a panel at this time.

I think that Monica Lennon was going to come in next.

Thank you, minister. My point is about panels being created. Thinking about the trajectory that SPT is on, when would you envisage the panel being created, whether the SSI is approved or not? Would it be in 2026, 2027 or 2028?

I completely agree with that. However, we should be learning lessons from England and Wales, where people have tried to do the same thing. The approach has not worked there, but we are carrying on with it.

We have heard that there are no voices against franchising in the room; we just want to make sure that it is done in the correct way. You may pull a face about that if you want, but we have seen so much bad legislation—

I will continue to wind up.

We have seen that primary legislation can come to this Parliament very quickly—that is evident from our next agenda item. If the Government wants to move forward with franchising and to have it in place before the next election, it can do so if the political will for that exists. I encourage the minister to talk to the cabinet secretary, to ensure that the political will is there and to get primary legislation before us as quickly as possible, so that we can move forward with franchising.

Thank you for allowing me back in, convener.

I want to pick up on one point, minister. You said that the panels will still be created if the SSI is not approved today. However, with regard to the timescales for creating panels, it sounds as though SPT is furthest on in terms of franchising, although that is still many years away. Surely that gives you time to look again at the legislation and the franchising models, and to ensure that the panels are actually in place. Is that not correct?

If the SSI is not passed, that will not really change the timescale. We have heard that SPT is the furthest on, but it is still continuing its work and completion is still a long way off. It would surely be better, therefore, to correct the legislation—as I would put it—as opposed to pushing on regardless and missing this opportunity to get it correct.

How will you encourage more local authorities to report on the trickier categories? If you do that, I imagine that you will learn lessons about getting the methodology correct.