Seòmar agus comataidhean

Okay. We will move on.

Regarding the longest-outstanding issue, would you find it helpful if the committee were to write to the Scotland Office about the fact that that document has now been sent to it? We have had engagement with that office in the past.

As colleagues have no other questions, I thank the minister and his officials for their evidence. The committee might follow up later with any additional questions stemming from the session.

Is the committee content with the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

With that, I will move the committee into private.

Good morning, and welcome to the ninth meeting in 2024 of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. We have received apologies from Oliver Mundell MSP, and Jeremy Balfour is in another committee to speak to amendments to a bill. I remind everyone to switch off, or put to silent, mobile phones and other electronic devices.

The first item of business is to decide whether to take items 3, 4 and 5 in private. Is the committee content to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Under agenda item 2, we are considering one instrument, on which no points have been raised.

Is the committee content with the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

At its introduction, the bill included boat moorings and berthings as types of accommodation that are to be covered by a visitor levy. That led to concern in the recreational boating community and a view that the visitor levy should not apply to people using berthings, as a berthing is primarily a safe haven for a vessel, which is a very different scenario from staying in a room or in a hotel. A number of folk said to me that marinas, berthings and moorings are really just car parks for vessels.

Many recreational boaters use their boat to travel to a mooring, then leave their boat and perhaps stay in a local bed and breakfast for the night. Applying a visitor levy to that berth does not seem to be the right approach. There are also many difficulties with collecting and remitting the levy, given that many moorings are run by small voluntary community groups and sometimes no formal record is made of who has used the berth.

I welcome the committee’s recommendation in the stage 1 report that boat moorings and berthings should not be covered by a visitor levy. In my role as the chair of the cross-party group on recreational boating and marine tourism, I arranged for the minister to meet members of the boating community here in the Parliament and in my constituency, to hear their concerns. I know that he has listened carefully to their perspective and is sympathetic to the purpose behind amendment 18, in my name. Therefore, I hope that the Government is able to support it.

What you have just said is extremely helpful, minister. You are aware of my interest in a cruise ship levy. I know that it is early in the process, but are you considering primary legislation or delegated powers to introduce any such change in the future?