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We are still in discussions. At the end of last week, Mairi Gougeon, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, and I met Paul Scully to go through the issues that I have just outlined, but we did not reach any agreement. We shared our concerns again, as we have done on many occasions. Officials continue to discuss such matters regularly, but unfortunately we have not been able to reach a conclusion on those important issues.

Yes, I echo what you have just said. The underlying point is that there is a lack of clarity and a lack of available guidance. My understanding is that the bank has raised those points. Much of the bank’s work involves lending at commercial rates in a commercial environment, but in a scenario of market failure or a similar scenario in which the bank felt that there was a need to lend money, given its mission, it would require clarity on what was and was not allowed. The lack of clarity in the guidance raises a concern about what may or may not be possible.

That is absolutely right and applies across a range of issues, and it goes back to the points that I made earlier. The bank will have to decide whether things may or may not be done under the subsidy control regime, and if the guidance is not clear, at the first level, that might stop the bank doing things that it might otherwise have done, because of those concerns. As you said, decisions on devolved issues would be made at the UK level, but devolved institutions should be making the decisions based on the specific economic environment in Scotland.

At all levels, it would be preferable and desirable, from a democratic point of view and from an economic and practical point of view, for Scotland to make such decisions and for the Scottish ministers to have powers equivalent to those of the secretary of state.

That is a good question and we have raised it. The cabinet secretary, Mairi Gougeon, had extensive discussions with Paul Scully on this last week. The position that you outlined is correct. Agriculture is normally excluded from subsidy control regimes. It has separate treatment by the World Trade Organization and the EU, through a separate process.

Secondly, agriculture is fully devolved. It is a prime example of an area where we are seeing encroachment of UK Government powers into devolved areas.

Thirdly, of course, Scotland has specific circumstances. That goes back to the point that was made earlier about the fact that the characteristics of the sector in Scotland are different to those in much of the rest of the UK, which means that the ability to have different regimes for subsidies in agriculture within Scotland in practical terms may well evolve over time. Clearly, given that it is a devolved area, we want Scottish ministers and the Scottish Parliament to be able to make decisions on the most appropriate subsidy. Control regimes in wider WTO and trade agreement limitations help us to do that and not to be running the risk of falling foul of concerns raised south of the border about what we are doing. I believe that the Welsh Government is aligned with our position on that.

Our ask is that devolved ministers would have equivalent powers to the secretary of state in that regard.

We have made representations that there should be a review of the timelines in the bill. I mentioned in my opening remarks that interested parties do not have long enough to appeal. We think that the one-month period in which to give notice of an appeal could be extended to allow those parties to raise any issues. In terms of transparency, that has been our commentary on the bill.

Transparency will depend on how good the database is. Awards will be logged on to the database and the information will be available for people to access and look at. However, much will depend on how effectively the database operates—I know that there have been teething problems with the database that has been used for the subsidy control regime. Providing that the database works as it should, that information will be available for people to interrogate.

You are absolutely correct, and you are right to raise the importance of a net zero Scotland. We have seen the developments with ScotWind this week, and there are many examples of Scotland’s globally leading position in many of the technologies and opportunities in relation to the just transition to net zero. We need to be in a position where we have the ability to provide support as we see fit within a set of rules that is transparent, clear and predictable. All of that is important.

If you are asking me whether there is a risk that, as a consequence of where we are at the moment with this bill, we will find it difficult, more time-consuming or impossible to do things that we would otherwise do, I would say that that is absolutely the case. There have already been examples where support has been delayed and we have had to deal with a more complicated process internally as a consequence of a lack of clarity on the guidance and where that takes us.

In answer to your earlier point, of course we agree that there should be subsidy control or state aid regimes in place. It is essential from a good governance point of view and from a global trade point of view that we have those rules at the global level, a bilateral level and EU level. We absolutely recognise the need for that because it works in both directions. It gives certainty to Scottish exporters as well as giving certainty to the steps that the Government and others take within Scotland. The key point is that there needs to be clarity and a process that allows those decisions to be clear in advance and allows for clear guidance about what can and cannot be done.

You have raised a few different issues. The lack of guidance suggests a lack of detail, which makes it difficult to take a view on some issues. The inclusion of agriculture, as I mentioned, is clearly a concern.

Our concern relates to the use of powers in devolved areas of competence. The UK secretary of state will have powers across the whole UK—they will have a whole list of powers with regard to the operation of the scheme, when it is up and running—but there is no equivalent power for the Scottish ministers in devolved areas. That imbalance runs against the devolution settlement.

We are concerned about that in principle, but we are also concerned about operational aspects, in relation to knowledge and understanding and the specific impact on Scotland. How events unfold in Scotland should have an impact on the nuances of any decisions that are made and on the relative importance of different decisions or subsidies, and the detailed knowledge of such matters is clearly in Scotland.

There is a point of principle about the powers and the erosion of the devolution settlement, but there is also the practical point that we are much closer to the issues than somebody in Whitehall would be.

We must have clarity. As has been said, there are questions about exactly how things will operate and there are concerns about the lack of guidance. There are also concerns that decisions would go to, and fall under the powers of, the secretary of state. Decisions will be taken at the UK level without regard to what is happening in Scotland or in other devolved Administrations.

On whether there should be more detail in the bill, and certainly in the guidelines, on there being different scope to act in different parts of the country, we support that call.