Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thanks for correcting me.

It was stated earlier that there is a market for defence vessels and that there is likely to be more defence spending by the United Kingdom Government and other Governments. Have you had any dialogue or correspondence with the Ministry of Defence?

Thank you.

My question is on the same area that the convener and Mr Doris raised. When you write to the committee, I would be grateful if you could emphasise the benefits of the flexibility that you spoke about in answer to the convener. You may want to touch on that now but, as you alluded to in your answer to the convener, at different times of the year, demand will be different—for example, I think that you said that more lorries are transported in the winter and there are more passengers in the summer. That is an important flexibility in the vessel and an important aspect of the capacity that you may want to elaborate on in your correspondence, or now.

That would be helpful, because it is important to emphasise that the vessel has that flexibility.

I have one more question, convener.

Good morning, minister, and welcome to your officials. The committee noted that there were only two responses to the Scottish Government consultation, but I am aware of how much proactive engagement the Scottish Government—including you, of course—generally does with stakeholders. Could you reassure us that the Government is confident that all necessary and appropriate steps have been taken to hear the views of stakeholders and that you have obtained the feedback that you would want to get this right?

Minister, in order to assist you and colleagues with these important deliberations, I note that an important point—as colleagues have emphasised—is the need for opportunities for primary legislation, in order to act on any conclusions that come from the round table.

To state the obvious, law making is the most important bit of work that we do in this Parliament. If the timetable for stage 3 does not permit input from that round table to be acted on and the actions that are agreed through that process to be undertaken, I think that it would be appropriate and beneficial for the Parliament to receive reassurance from you ahead of stage 3 that those considerations, and any conclusions, would form the input for another piece of primary legislation in the current session of Parliament.

Good morning. I welcome the amendments, especially amendments 24 and 48, which address matters that were discussed during the stage 1 process and in the committee’s stage 1 report, and which had been raised by stakeholders, including Glasgow Caledonian University.

I support the amendments, but I would like to draw the minister’s attention to the University of Glasgow’s 19 January submission to the committee. If the Government has not received a copy of that, the committee can share it. I ask the Government to reflect on that submission prior to stage 3 and to consider whether further refinement of the proposed amendments might be beneficial in dealing with the issues at hand.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for that, cabinet secretary. Just for clarity, it is understandable that, because of the staging and phasing of such a big project, there are fluctuations in the figures from year to year, but are you emphasising today that there is a commitment to progressing with the full plans that the botanic garden agreed with the Government in the infancy of the project?

When I met RBGE representatives recently, they emphasised how good the engagement with the Scottish Government was at both official and ministerial level.