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Does that require a TCA renegotiation of issues around alignment or negotiation of, say, a Europe-wide ETS, or can that happen separately if both parties are willing to enter into that process?

There have been far too many crashes and near misses across the Stirling area, including between Bridge of Allan and the Keir roundabout, where cyclists, in particular, need better protection through a segregated cycle route. Can the cabinet secretary confirm that there will be no roll-back of Scottish Government funding for active travel infrastructure? Will she reassure me, and the residents of Dunblane and Bridge of Allan, that funding will be made available this year to progress that critical cycle route and protect lives?

I should declare that I have a member’s bill proposal for a “Prohibition of Greyhound Racing (Scotland) Bill”, which I am currently working on. I am an honorary associate member of the British Veterinary Association and I am also a beekeeper, which is probably of less relevance to today’s session—but you never know, it may come up.

Where do you get your evidence from as a minister? You have an official there who is a long-qualified vet and has led a number of pieces of animal welfare legislation through the Parliament. The information that you have received about Thornton is from a friend, I think you said. I have quite strong anecdotal evidence that there are dogs that race at Thornton that are housed in a shed down at Seafield, so we could pop out at lunchtime and have a look at that. That could be good evidence, if you like.

I am interested in how we break through the anecdotal nature of this evidence and get clear evidence about the nature of the risks of licensed and unlicensed tracks and, therefore, the case for reform. That might be licensing—although it appears that you are undecided about whether licensing has a role—or a phase out, which is obviously being proposed in my member’s bill. Are you open to evidence or is it fixed now? You have had the letter and that is it?

I think that you said earlier that you believe, through the evidence that you have heard, that there is a lesser scale of gambling at Thornton. What difference does that make to a dog?

If you are licensing an activity that you know pretty well involves a certain level of injuries and deaths, are you not licensing animal cruelty and saying, “Yes, we will continue doing this because it is worth monitoring”?

Will licensing reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths? I have a greyhound. He goes out for runs occasionally in a field or whatever and he might get a cut here and there, but the injuries that he had when he was racing, such as a broken hock, were far more significant. We see that sort of thing with greyhounds all the time. What will licensing do to prevent those catastrophic injuries and, in some cases, dogs being put down? I can see that having a vet on site to help clear up after an accident or treat a dog might be useful, but I am struggling to see how licensing will fundamentally change the picture that we have, which is that, when dogs are racing around a track at 40mph, they collide into each other and break their legs or suffer from a range of injuries, which can result in amputations and so on. What will licensing do to bring down the rate of those catastrophic injuries?

You have made quite a distinction today, minister, about regulated versus unregulated tracks. We have a regulated track in Scotland, at Shawfield, although it has not been open for a number of years, and we have the unregulated track in Thornton. What is the difference in track design and inherent risk to dogs that are racing at Thornton and those racing at Shawfield? Is there a difference between the tracks?

It has operated as a racing track.

But it is a track that is in existence and we have figures for injuries and deaths when there was racing there and they are slightly higher than the average across Great Britain. What is the difference in the inherent risk? If you are a dog and you are racing at Thornton, what is the difference in the risk of leg breaks or other injuries that could be life threatening? What is the difference between racing at Thornton compared to racing at a GBGB track elsewhere in the UK or at Shawfield?