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Good morning. I want to start by asking about land reform. We have had the community right to buy for about 20 years now, but only 3 per cent of Scotland is in community ownership. I would be interested to know whether the Scottish Government is happy with that level. Would you consider that the policy has been successful?

That is good to hear. The Scottish Government has indicated that it has yet to make a decision on whether to tender or to directly award the next Clyde and Hebrides ferry services contract. When will that decision be made? Do you intend to award CalMac Ferries a contract extension to allow for any future arrangements to be established?

One of the issues that we are noticing is that there seems to be quite a lot of geographical disparity. I am sure that you will have noticed that yourself. Do you have any idea what the reasons behind that might be? For instance, we know that there is no community ownership at all in Falkirk and less than a handful in places such as Aberdeen, Angus—which will interest you, I am sure—Dundee, East Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire. Does the Government have some actions in mind that it is looking at to address that?

Would you outline what you would see as the key barriers as they stand at the moment and whether you think that the upcoming legislation will make those barriers easier for communities to get past? Is that something that you are considering?

So the committee will be the second to know about it, then.

The Scottish Government has set out that it does not think that having an independent ferry regulator is the appropriate way forward. How, then, will it be possible to ensure the strong oversight of lifeline ferry service provisions that the committee and communities are looking for?

Good morning. I turn to the subject of ferries. At the time when the minister was a member of the committee, it put together a comprehensive report. At the end of last month, we received a response from the Government that suggested that consideration would be given to the recommended merger between Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd and Transport Scotland’s ferries division. When will the Scottish Government announce what the new institutional structure might look like and when it might be put in place?

Thank you, convener. I have no interests to declare.

Good morning, panel. I am sure that the cabinet secretary will be well aware of the committee’s recent report, which was a timely and important look at the issues around electricity infrastructure.

The committee is interested to know whether the cabinet secretary agrees that a new approach is needed for funding and for developing grid capacity and that it should anticipate future need rather than react to the current need. If so, what can the Scottish Government do to improve the situation on that topic?

The planning system came up repeatedly when we looked into this area. I think that we all agree that we do not want that to be a blocker to our net zero ambitions. Again, a step change is needed in that regard, perhaps in the resources for planning, or perhaps in the way in which planning works, including the practices that are used. Do you have a view on anything that the Scottish Government could do to create some level of improvement in the planning system?