Seòmar agus comataidhean

Before I thank the witnesses for their evidence this morning, I wonder whether Douglas Lumsden and Jackie Dunbar want to say anything about their previous roles in life, in the form of declarations of interest. You indicated that you might.

I see that Monica Lennon has a question.

The second item is consideration of a draft statutory instrument. I welcome Fiona Hyslop, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Micheila West, solicitor, Scottish Government, and Matthew Eastwood, head of electric vehicle infrastructure, low-carbon economy directorate, Transport Scotland.

The statutory instrument is laid under the affirmative procedure, which means that it cannot come into force unless the Parliament approves it. Following this evidence session, the committee will be invited, under the next agenda item, to consider a motion to recommend that the instrument be approved. I remind everyone that the officials can speak under this item but not in the debate that follows.

Cabinet secretary, I think that you want to make a short opening statement. I always say that in the hope that any statement will be short. Over to you.

That is helpful. You used UK figures. How is it going in Scotland?

Can I make a suggestion on a way forward and see whether it meets with the committee’s approval? First of all, I think that we should take evidence in writing. If we were going to do that, I would invite committee members to submit to the clerks any questions that they would like answers to. The clerks could then send them off, and we would give a tight timescale to ensure that we got responses before 28 October to allow people to make a decision.

We could then have a short evidence-taking session on the morning of 29 October. It would mean an earlier start, but we would probably have to get the cabinet secretary in as well as any witnesses recommended by the clerks. We could take the decision on the instrument then. As far as I am aware, we have no leeway on the final date, because the SSI has to go through the Parliament. I am looking at the clerks as I say that, and they are confirming that to me.

Are we happy with that as a reasonable way of dealing with the matter?

That is an extremely good question, and I do not know the answer to it. I do know that we have a final date for lodging stage 2 amendments—I am just looking at the clerks, who are confirming to me that that date is 23 October. I will have a pretty good idea of how long that item will take once I have looked at the groupings with the legislation team, and we can then work our way through the timings. Given the timescale set by the Parliament, we might have to do what we did last week and look at meeting while Parliament is sitting.

I know that that is not a great solution, Jackie, but I see no way round it if we are going to give the matter proper scrutiny.

I note that the committee is content to move forward with it.

We move on to the next negative instrument. If no one has any comments, does the committee agree that it does not wish to make any recommendations on the regulations?

Members indicated agreement.

Welcome back. Under item 5, we are considering a Scottish Government improvement plan in response to an improvement report from Environmental Standards Scotland. The report relates to an investigation that ESS began in May 2022 into how well supported local authorities are in contributing to statutory national climate change targets. ESS made five recommendations to the Scottish Government, four of which have been resolved. Recommendation 4, relating to local authorities’ reporting on scope 3 emissions, was not resolved to ESS’s satisfaction, so the Scottish Government had to prepare an improvement plan and lay it before Parliament. That is what we are discussing today.

I am pleased to welcome our first panel of witnesses: Silke Isbrand, policy manager, environment and economy team, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities; George Tarvit, director, Sustainable Scotland Network; Mark Roberts, chief executive officer, Environmental Standards Scotland; Jamie McGrandles, head of investigations, standards and compliance, Environmental Standards Scotland; and Clare Wharmby, programme director, Scottish Climate Intelligence Service.

We will go straight to questions. You are not getting an opening statement, as much as you might like one. I will ask a very gentle question to start with. I seek your overall views on the improvement plan published by the Scottish Government in September this year. Does it properly address the unresolved recommendation of the ESS report? Let us start on my left, which is your right. Silke Isbrand, do you want to go first?

There were four other recommendations and you appear to be happy with the Government’s position on those. Explain to me, please, why you are happy with that.