Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you.

Yes—I can tell you that.

Let us not get caught in negativity, convener. We are in a better position than we were in 2018.

Aye, I would say that it is the same thinking. This goes back to what I said earlier on about being able to have that kind of working relationship with colleagues in Westminster. It becomes difficult when you cannot pick up a phone and say something as simple as, “We are having difficulty with—insert name of bill,” or “What are you trying to achieve with—insert name of bill,” so that we can understand it. When we cannot do that, we end up with a situation where it is just purely emails and letters going backwards and forwards to one another. That makes things a bit difficult for us.

When we are making a decision, we think about how it affects the Scottish Government and, nine times out of 10, the Scottish Government will want to put an SSI down to say that it is the Scottish Parliament that is legislating on the issue. I think it is only right that we would look to do that because, regardless of which political party is in government in Scotland, we do not want to live in a place where the UK Government is legislating too much on devolved matters.

That is a difficult question for us to answer here and now. Trying to unpick EU laws that have been part of our legislative structure since 1972 is quite a difficult task; it is one that officials in both Westminster and the Scottish Government are looking at. We are trying to find a way. We are constantly looking at how that will affect us and at what we can do to deal with it. It is difficult for me to say at this stage what the impact will be. We need a balance between finding a way to make that work so that we can still have full scrutiny and ending up in a position where everything that we do is about EU retained law.

Our officials are in constant communication with their counterparts in the UK Government. They are trying to find that out, which is very difficult. I was three years old in 1972. I know I do not look that age, Ms Mochan, but that is not yesterday. We are in a difficult and time-consuming situation. Officials on both sides are aware of the task and are trying to find solutions to ensure that we can retain EU law up here, although the UK Government has other ideas.

Thank you.

The proposals are being seriously considered and we are reviewing which ones we will implement. You mention the Parliament’s idea and people of Scotland’s idea of what we should do. We are living in a cost of living crisis, and there are only so many bills that I can get in the timetable between now and the end of the session. It is not that we do not see the Scottish Law Commission bills as important; we need to prioritise what we will do, and we are still working towards ensuring that the Government’s programme is delivered.

I will try to put your mind at rest, Mr Mundell. We continually look at what we could introduce, and we engage to ensure that we see what could be relevant to various aspects of life in Scotland and how we can implement SLC bills. They are not being forgotten about. They are not going down a big, dark hole somewhere in the Scottish Government.

We are constantly looking at the matter, but, again, it comes down to the Government’s prioritisation and how we move forward. We have only so many bill spots between now and the end of the session. I know that, in year 2, that almost sounds as though we are wishing away our lives, but, as the Minister for Parliamentary Business, I have to consider that, as well. They are not being forgotten about.

We are continuing with the work that we have done up until now, which has made sure that a limited number of errors are made in the first place. As I said, however, we are always willing to engage with anyone else. If the committee has anything to offer us or to talk to us about, we can look at that.

On the whole, most of the drafting has been good and has ensured that we have been able to bring legislation forward in the right way. We would be happy to look at anything else that could be added but, on the whole, it is simply a case of ensuring that we continue to provide the committee and the Parliament with the most accurate SSIs and instruments that we can.

Just to compare and contrast, there have been 96 SSIs since September, if you think that 61 SSIs is a lot and we are giving you quite a bit of work.