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I am glad that you asked me that, because a narrative has been put out there that we are reacting to the decision that the shareholders of Petroineos made last year, when, in fact, work has been on-going for quite a long time. The Scottish Government has been working with Petroineos in particular to prepare for a just transition, or a transition in the type of work that it would do, and I have a list here of the projects that we have worked on.

In 2021, the Scottish Government provided financial support to project GRACE, which investigated a range of potential decarbonisation interventions across Grangemouth. In 2022, the business provided 50 per cent of the funding for a biorefinery pre-appraisal study for biofuels, and the Scottish Government matched the funding. Appraisal studies on fuel switching, net zero and blue hydrogen projects were funded by a 50:50 split between Ineos and the Scottish Government. There was a further study on the biorefinery in 2023, and project willow was completed last year.

It is unfortunate that the shareholders did not want to progress any of those projects. That is a real shame, because I think that there was appetite from the workers and the management of the refinery to progress those opportunities. When I first came into post as Minister for Energy, I visited the refinery to discuss some of the outcomes of the biorefinery appraisal study, and the excitement was palpable. However, the shareholders and owners did not want to take it forward. It is not true to say that project willow was done in an emergency situation—the Government, working with Ineos, has been building the case for the refinery to change what it produced for quite some time. When it comes down to it, the company made a decision not to go forward with any of those projects, based on the views of the shareholders and the board.

The fact is that that work remains: it has been done and it fed into project willow. The study was funded by both Governments, and Petroineos led the work. Up to the point that the study was published, the work was done by EY, and it is now being taken forward by Scottish Enterprise and the task force. A great deal of work has been done in preparation for what we knew could happen.

As you have brought the matter up, convener, I have to say that the previous UK Government did not show an interest in putting money into any of those interventions. I have outlined what the Scottish Government did, including providing 50:50 match funding with Ineos to do a lot of those studies. The previous UK Government was not interested in removing the HEFA cap and, although a member of the Grangemouth future industry board, it stayed largely silent and was not interested in doing anything to save the refinery or doing anything like project willow.

We had already started to progress and flesh out project willow with Petroineos before the change in the UK Government. When that change happened, we were delighted that the new UK Government wanted to part-fund the project. Before that point, it had looked as though the Scottish Government and Petroineos would have to fund it, because the previous UK Government was not interested. With the change in Government, though, there was a different mindset, and each of the two Governments took a 50:50 share of the costs associated with project willow.

Personally, I think it is important that we look forward. Project willow has happened, and it has been very well received. Wherever we go, I and my UK Government counterparts have been speaking to investors about it; it is known about in Europe by the likes of RWE in Germany and all the big investors.

As Jan Robertson has outlined, there are 84 proposals coming forward—and that is just to date. The door is not closed on any of them, and I say to anyone who is watching this committee and has projects that they want to bring to us that they should absolutely do so. Of course, there are the approaches that are being made to Petroineos, too.

We could look back five years and start pointing fingers. However, the most important thing is that in the past year—and particularly in the past six months—project willow and the task force have moved things along in a swift, agile and focused way. I am feeling so much more confident than I did this time last year about the prospects for that site.

I will bring in Chris Bryceland to explain the technical aspects and what has already been done at UK level.

You are making a point—I absolutely hear it—about what we have to do across all four nations of the UK to accelerate the recycling of plastic. We have our landfill ban, which is associated with that, and we are moving forward with the deposit return scheme as well. We also have the producer liability duties coming into play. Some of the projects that we are looking at—I guess that we should call those the willow projects—are about making chemicals from plastic. There is a market for that. I will bring in Chris Bryceland on the detail of that.

As part of the industry task force, as we bottom out some of the more viable projects and as the projects go forward, we will assess the regulation that will be required. As Lorna Slater will know all too well, I am also involved in inter-ministerial conversations among the four nations on everything to do with the circular economy—in fact, I think that I am due to have one next week. We are having conversations not just with the UK Government but with the Governments of Wales and Northern Ireland. In particular, the recycling rates in Wales are very good—I think that they are among the best in Europe—and it wants to go further and to be able to recycle more.

Where regulatory change would be required to enable the feasibility and viability of the projects that we see, we must be agile in looking at the regulation that is associated with any of them. Ms Slater makes a very good point that there is an issue with the investability of recycling plastics, in that the business case for that is perhaps not strong enough to attract investment. However, interestingly, the recycling projects that are coming forward are the ones that are looking the most viable at the moment.

I will bring in Jan Robertson to give a wee bit more detail.

You are going to have to explain that to me—I have not seen that.

We have to move forward in good faith. We want to work with Ineos, which owns the site. As the constituency member, you are absolutely within your rights to ask such questions. Scottish Enterprise is progressing all the work that it is doing for the task force, and we are triaging all the approaches that come in. Scottish Enterprise is discussing with potential investors how they would want to operate, and discussing any issues that they might bring up around leasing parts of the site is part of that process.

To date, Ineos has certainly worked with us in good faith. It would not be in its interest to set punitive terms. If what it wants out of the process is to be the landlord, it wants to attract people into developing projects, via project willow or anything else, as that will secure it long-term tenancies. Putting punitive terms in place would not be in Ineos’s interest, because that could put off investment.

The previous minister is not making that up; she lived and breathed that legislation, and I took over the bill half way through.

The route map has been developed in collaboration with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, individual councils and other stakeholders. We did not want to take a top-down approach and say that all 32 local authorities have to manage their waste in a certain way. What we want is for local authorities to look at good practice that can be shared. The Verity house agreement is in place, and local authorities are in charge of managing their own business.

There will be geographical variations in the types of waste but SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland are doing an analysis of the current gaps in relation to the types of plastics, where they are being sent for reprocessing, whether there is opportunity for reprocessing in Scotland and what the associated volumes are. That will enable them to tell companies such as Celtic Renewables where the opportunities are and work with them to ascertain what they need, with an eye on the opportunity to expand their operations.

We have a really good waste sector in Scotland. We have companies such as Keenan Recycling and Celtic Renewables, which are expanding into different areas. This is an opportunity for them to do that with regard to plastics recycling. I will not reel off a lot of different types of plastics because I would be making it up if I did that, Mr Johnson. However, SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland are doing that analysis on behalf of the Government.

The Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 is robust. It allows flexibility. I do not think that regulatory change will be required but co-ordination of the waste streams will be needed. I refer not only to the waste streams from Scotland. If plastic waste recycling of the types that I mentioned happens in Grangemouth, that will also be an offer to the rest of the UK. There are gaps in the types of plastic recycling that can happen in the UK, not just in Scotland. That is why it is critical that the Scottish Government and the UK Government work together. The intelligence that the UK Government has on the waste streams in the rest of the UK will help the business case for any such projects.

It made commercial decisions. I and Ed Miliband tried very hard to get it to make different decisions—

Project willow, the task force and the work that has been done in the Grangemouth future industry board—which we have not mentioned, but which has involved stakeholders from communities, Scottish Enterprise, Forth Valley College and so on—have been really important. Not only have lessons been learned from that work; it has provided us with a potential blueprint for how we could work in the future.

We must also look at the just transition plan for Mossmorran and other places that you have mentioned, convener. We are always looking at how we could improve and be not only agile but proactive—we have a just transition plan associated with the oil and gas sector in the north-east, for example.

I add that the just transition plan for Grangemouth should be published next week, subject to Cabinet approval.

That is a question directly for them. What I would say is that the workers at the refinery will get other opportunities because of the high level of transferable skills that they have.

A good proportion of the workers at the refinery have always worked there, so they have never had to apply for other jobs or think about what other areas they might want to go into. They have gone from school into college and then into apprenticeships, and have been in the refinery for their whole working lives. That is a very unusual situation, but it is what the refinery has meant for Grangemouth.

The issue is not that the workers do not have transferable skills but that they have never had to think about applying for other jobs. They have never analysed the skills that they have and effectively marketed themselves to new employers. Work is being done at Forth Valley College to assist them to do that, and jobs fairs that are being run in association with that work are bringing in companies that recognise those people’s transferable skills and can offer them work.

However, Mr Coffey, you make a very good point. As marketable and highly skilled as those workers are, at the moment, a lot of the opportunities that they will be offered will require them to move. I come from a family that had to move because of a lack of a just transition—people will have heard me saying that my father was in shipbuilding and had to move in order to get work. The history of Scottish industry is full of stories of families having to relocate. It is not an easy thing to do and it is disruptive for families, so we want to ensure that people will have an opportunity to stay in the Grangemouth and Falkirk area—it is important to remember that it is not only Grangemouth that is affected; the surrounding area is affected, too. We want to prioritise medium-term opportunities for new businesses to come in, but we are also working with Petroineos, Forth Valley College and large Scottish companies who need workers with the skills that those workers have, so that as many of those people as possible can stay in the area.