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 2338 contributions
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 17 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
That would be very welcome. Let me consider this from the perspective of a constituent. Let us say that I have a constituent who lives close to a dairy farm and that members of the family have particular lung health conditions that are exacerbated by particulates that are derived from ammonia. The family is looking for regulation, for answers to those problems and for action to be taken by the polluter. If they called your helpline, what information would you give them? Where do they sit in the authorisation framework?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 17 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
The review showed that the cost of dualling the A96 is £5,000 million. That is the equivalent of 200 years of the Scottish Government’s road safety budget. If one of the key priorities for the A96 review was about safety, how can a package of measures to improve safety now be agreed that can be delivered quickly and include measures such as average-speed cameras, which have been so successful in reducing casualties on the A9?
Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]
Meeting date: 12 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
The national cycle network, which was built and managed by Sustrans Scotland, has been hugely successful, generating 60 million trips every year. It does not just connect places together; it connects people to schools and shops within communities as well. Can the cabinet secretary confirm whether the funding for the national cycle network specifically is going up next year in order to enable Sustrans to deliver the projects to start to close some of the missing links that we see at the moment, such as Comrie to Crieff and Dunkeld? [Interruption.]
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
The conversation about new crofts is tantalising. The committee recently held a meeting in Perthshire, where there was a lot of interest in forest crofts, and Forestry and Land Scotland is doing some work that is particularly exciting for young people.
Andrew Thin, you mentioned national parks. Would any reform of the powers or functions of the national parks be required in order to deliver more crofts within the park areas? We have only two current national parks, but a third one may be on the way.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
We keep going back to your previous roles.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
You have mentioned lotting a number of times. Before we leave that subject, does anyone want to reflect more on what is currently in the bill? We have heard a lot of comments from stakeholders about the lotting process. Do you want to comment on lotting?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
Okay. I presume that Andrew Thin and Gary Campbell are not going to comment on that. I see that they are not.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
Is there a time horizon, rather than a date, by which you expect to be in compliance with that important international treaty on the environment?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
If there is a date for that, it would be useful for this committee and the compliance committee to know what it is.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 10 December 2024
Mark Ruskell
Right. What about the outcome of that?