Seòmar agus comataidhean

We will come back to land management plans later, because a number of committee members, including me, are interested in them.

Does that come back to what David Tydeman told the committee about the need for a plating line and a grand block? Will the £14 million investment gear you up to take on more subcontracting work?

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland’s latest report on road policing. (S6O-04004)

It is quite clear that speed kills, and that communities across Scotland are fed up with dangerous speeding that goes undetected, unenforced and unpunished by the police and the courts. That is a rural problem but it is also an urban problem. Does the cabinet secretary believe that it is time to devolve responsibility for speed enforcement to councils, allowing communities to control dangerous speeding and creating a much-needed source of revenue to invest in safer streets?

Thanks for that. Did you want to comment, David?

I want to go back to the issue of community consultation on land management. When I was looking at the evidence, I saw NFUS’s comment about

“informal practices that have taken place for generations”

in rural communities. I feel that that sort of thing is probably a bit patchy, having lived in rural areas most of my life. It is probably the case that some good and some not-so-good things happen. To what extent do you believe that voluntary engagement with communities is strong enough to effectively obviate the need for a statutory requirement in the bill? I am interested in your thoughts on that. The convener has already alluded to our visit to highland Perthshire, where we saw some pretty good practice, but we have also heard about some less-than-good practice, some very disengaged landowners and frustrated communities.

Shall we go back round again, kicking off with Sarah-Jane Laing?

If land ownership in Scotland is more concentrated, an intervention will impact a much smaller number of people than, say, an intervention in Denmark, which would impact a much greater number of people. If a small number of people would be affected, what weighting is that given when considering the impact on the private property interest?

That would be useful. David, do you have anything to add?

I know that there was discussion with the previous UK Government about the introduction of a carbon tax. That was an option at one point, although I am not sure whether it was intended to run alongside an ETS or as a replacement of an ETS.

It would be useful to get your thoughts on whether a carbon tax is now off the agenda and whether everything is now completely focused on an ETS.

I note that Norway also has an ETS—presumably aligned with that of the European Union—but that it also has a carbon tax on both its oil and gas sector and the production emissions from oil and gas. The fact that it has an ETS and a carbon tax means that the industry makes a significant contribution to the Norwegian state.

I am interested in where the discussion is. Is a carbon tax on or off the agenda? Are we simply considering this instrument as the main way to decarbonise?

Would it come down to guidance, then? Would the detail of the guidance determine whether the approach was too prescriptive or not prescriptive enough?