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What about that 18-month lead-in time? Is that something you would all broadly support so we can work out the implementation of this locally?

The question of national parks recently came up in discussion. There are varying views on them, but how do we ensure that the national parks receive their fair share of the visitor levy? They can span multiple authorities, as we all know. How do we solve that particular problem? Rob Dickson, I will start with you again.

Donald Emslie, do you have a view?

Should the money that is raised locally be spent in that area only? For example, say it was Skye we were talking about, and people are staying there, should the money raised through the levy be restricted and spent in that area or should the local authority be allowed to spend that revenue wherever it chooses in the authority?

Leon Thompson, how should we evidence the success of the legislation?

That is great. Any view on that, Leon or Marc, or will we leave that one there?

Thanks, convener. Gary, you are in the territory that I wanted to ask you about, which is what the role is for the localised DMOs. You have expressed that very clearly.

One issue that might come up is the 18-month lead-in proposal and whether you agree with that. Rob Dickson was quite clear from VisitScotland’s point of view that it was essential to have the space to allow properly worked out thinking between passing the legislation and putting it into practice, so that local authorities could get it right. Do you see a clear role for yourselves as localised DMOs to help the system get that right?

Do you have any final words, Marc?

Those are really good diplomatic answers. I invite you to look beyond the legislation and it being in place and so on. How should we measure the positive impact of the legislation looking ahead? What should we be looking for? Let us start with Rob Dickson again, if that is okay.

Good morning, Auditor General and colleagues. You mentioned that the driver behind all this is the significant cuts to the capital budget that are coming to the Scottish Government from the UK Government. I know that exhibit 3 gives us some information on that, but I want to ask you for the figures behind that. For example, you have talked about a 7 per cent cut, and in paragraph 15, you talk about

“an 11 per cent gap”

next year and a further “16 per cent gap” the following year. Are you able to quantify the value of those percentage figures to the budget?