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I give you notice, minister, that I will lodge an amendment if you do not.

Well, you have got it.

If it is sensitive, that is fine. Expanding that would be helpful rather than our just having a letter that makes a reference to “Information provided”. Obviously, you have that information but we do not.

By the way, I should have declared an interest as a member of the SSPCA.

I want to talk about the interpretation part of the bill. We are all talking about peatland, but the only thing that we have on interpretation is in section 18(1), where it says:

“‘peatland’ means land where the soil has a layer of peat with a thickness of more than 40 centimetres.”

I appreciate that you can change that through regulations under the affirmative procedure. However, under section 10, “Application for muirburn licence”, the applicant can say, “I can do muirburn here, because the land to which this application relates is not peatland,” or they can make an application where the land is peatland. I do not know this, so you are going to have to tell me: how do you know what is peatland? You have given a definition of depth only, not acreage or anything else.

I am talking about acreage. I might have a piece of land the size of this room that has peat to a depth of 40cm and complies with your definition. Is that peatland? Can I burn it? Which application do I come under? Who is going to tell me?

Therefore, there is already something in operation that has designated what is and what is not peatland.

I will ask about training in relation to muirburn. Section 10 is on “Application for muirburn licence”. Subsection (3) says:

“An application under subsection (1) ... must be made ... to the Scottish Ministers, and ... in such manner and form as the Scottish Ministers may require”.

Would you consider including in that application a requirement that someone who is applying to carry out muirburn on peatland should confirm that they have undergone training?

You would consider that.

That is good. Thank you.