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Is Circularity Scotland concerned that, following the passing of the original deadline for registration, a significant number of smaller producers that currently market products in Scotland still have not registered? If they do not do so by the launch date of 16 August, will they still be able to sell in Scotland?

Thank you.

I will ask a question on another point shortly but, to be absolutely clear, I will reflect back what Donald McCalman just said. If I had a business that was not registered by 16 August, I might not be able to sell my products in Scotland. Is that the case? I ask you to answer that when you take my next question.

Mark Ruskell asked interesting questions about the support package of measures that has been put in place to help smaller producers to participate in the DRS. Notwithstanding those support measures, do you project that small, perhaps artisan, businesses will go out of business as a result of the scheme, perhaps because of the obligations that it places on them, which the deputy convener detailed?

I will come back in later.

Good morning, panel. I have a brief question that arises from Jackie Dunbar’s question about your preparedness for 16 August. What contingency planning are you doing for the scheme if it is not ready to go live on 16 August?

For my next question, I go back to what Clare Lavelle and Tom Quinn said about the import risks of blue hydrogen. Clare, your submission talks authoritatively about blue hydrogen and CCUS, highlighting their role in the transition for the oil and gas industry, but you also note that imports of gas

“will increase ... if reliance on gas does not reduce”,

and then you refer to

“significant risks to security of supply in an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment.”

If we accept that demand for power in the United Kingdom is likely to remain high for some time, and might even increase, given certain choices that we make, should this aspect of the energy strategy—the presumption against exploration—be reviewed, not only for the sake of energy security but to ensure the development of, say, hydrogen?

I understand. I am grateful, thank you.

Scott Mathieson and Aileen McLeod have both said that planning is an issue. Scottish Renewables broadly welcomed the new national planning framework 4. Does NPF4 deliver on the planning that is needed, given that you have referred to that as a challenge?

Good morning, panel. I will throw this question to Tom Quinn initially. It is about baseload and non-intermittent generation.

In Scotland, nuclear-generated energy is due to finish by 2030, I think. The draft energy strategy says that there will no new oil and gas exploration and production. Where do you think the non-intermittent generation will come from? I saw that, on 17 March, Torness was producing 42 per cent of the electricity produced in Scotland. When do you think that that replacement will happen?

I have a final question for Emily Rice. Clare Lavelle rightly mentioned the Climate Change Committee. It has said, among many interesting things, that there will be more frequent and more intense weather events as we become more dependent on renewable energy generation. Do you think that, if we put so much development and time into renewable technologies such as solar and move away from things such as nuclear energy and North Sea oil and gas, we will be increasingly subject to the risks that the Climate Change Committee has warned us of and that our energy security will be threatened?