The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 1816 contributions
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
I want to ask about engagement and, in particular, about how you engage with different groups. With the EU there is very deep engagement at policy and implementation level, which stakeholders have been used to up until now. In terms of your role, how are you engaging in particular with businesses but also with other stakeholders, such as those representing consumers and perhaps even regulators? What does the programme of work look like? How are you ensuring that your work is transparent and that you are able to take on the views of, and communicate effectively with, those groups of stakeholders? Some detail on that would be most useful.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
I was watching the little video that introduces the role, which is useful particularly for consumers and others. You talk in that video about the health of the internal market. What do you define that as? What are the top health indicators?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
I found some of David Hope-Jones’s comments about Malawi to be particularly sobering. I was there in 2005 and you could see back then what the climate impacts were, particularly in relation to the variability of rain. It is terrifying to think about what things might look like in years ahead.
David Hope-Jones mentioned the small grants programme in his submission. One thing that has stuck in my mind from going to Malawi is the impact of community-based organisations, which were doing a lot of work with very small amounts of money.
You said in your submission that the Scottish Government stopping the small grants programme was a “misstep”, and you point to some of the difficulties in the evaluation of the scheme. Can you say a bit more about that? How can the evaluation of small grants schemes be improved? Accounting for public money for development is really important, so how can we continue to do such work while building confidence that the money is going to the right places and achieving its objective?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
I have a brief follow-up question for the OIM. I am thinking about the common frameworks that have been established—there is one, for example, around waste and the circular economy. Some regulations are in place already—regulations that, in effect, made the cut and are emerging, such as deposit return schemes—and new regulations are coming forward that will come more fully into the remit of post-Brexit consideration of EU alignment or otherwise. How do you work with those? Is there, in effect, a firewall? You would not consider the deposit return scheme, for example, because that existed previously, although regulations can be updated over time. However, the common frameworks span all three areas and I am interested in where you draw the line, because some of them have contexts that affect each other.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
What does that look like practically? Can you give us a worked example of engagement on a particular issue? That might be useful.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 11 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
What is the top thing that you want to come out of the strategic transport projects review? Is it a mass transit system, which might occur in Edinburgh and Glasgow in the years ahead, or something else?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 11 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
Can I get Susan Aitken’s reflections on that?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 11 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
Can we have the Dumfries and Galloway perspective, too, please?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 11 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
I will ask both of the witnesses about transport. I am sure that we could do an hour on that, but we do not have the time. I will break it down a little. The first panel talked in an urban context about how we get road traffic reduction, including issues of equality. The situation that your two councils are in is different, in that you have urban centres but you also have a wider rural population. Where can you get the biggest reductions in emissions when it comes to transport policy in your areas? What are you focusing on for those urban populations and rural populations? What infrastructure projects are you carrying out and what partnerships and equality approaches are you taking to get the carbon reduction for both types of settlement in your areas?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Meeting date: 11 January 2022
Mark Ruskell
I thank the witnesses for their contributions.
I will focus on transport. Witnesses have mentioned some of the challenges around transport and its contribution to climate emissions reductions. I am interested to know what approaches you are taking to road traffic demand management. Do you have all the tools in the box, and are you willing to use them, to drive down mileage, in particular to meet the Government’s target for 2030?
Perhaps Adam McVey can start. We are coming up to 20 years since the Edinburgh congestion charge referendum. If the proposal had gone through and a charge had been put in place, would the city look different now in terms of traffic and levels of investment in infrastructure?