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Good morning to the panel. I want to pick up on Adrian Gillespie’s point about how we support companies to scale up, because we know that that is an issue. In the recent programme for government, there was an expectation of a greater role for the enterprise agencies in trying to reduce barriers to companies so that we get more successful companies scaling up.

You might be aware that the committee has run a bit of community engagement on the topic. One theme that came across strongly was that consumers lament the fact that they are always paying extra charges and that they are seen to have the responsibility to drive that change. Consumers thought that manufacturers and retailers should take more responsibility. What are the panel’s views on that?

Right—thank you.

Ewan MacDonald-Russell mentioned the UK’s extended producer responsibility. I finish by asking the panel for their views on coherence with other parts of the UK. We have previously seen issues with the internal market act; presumably, that might affect the proposals for this bill. What are your views on that? How should the Scottish Government approach that?

That is helpful; would anyone else like to come in?

Good morning. I will continue in the direction that Ben Macpherson was taking in his questioning. There were issues with the process that was followed for the DRS and with the engagement with businesses on the detail of the DRS. I guess that lessons will be learned from that.

If we reflect on those lessons, what should the Government’s process look like? The Government is trying to decide which single-use items to impose a charge on. We have touched on certain categories of item for which such a charge might not be appropriate. What should that decision-making process look like? How should it differ from what we have seen before? How can we best engage with business on this topic?

Yes, thank you, convener.

Scottish Parliament committees are always interested in what is working well elsewhere, even if it is far afield. Are there lessons to be learned from elsewhere in how we could better support life sciences and the industry?

Obviously, for the industry and for the Government, the Covid-19 pandemic led to changes to the way in which we worked and to the level of support that was provided. Are there things that we can learn from that? Should we continue some things and not leave them in the past?

Thank you.