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You touched on the idea that other authorities are perceived as not being supportive, or that people are brought up in that regime to believe that they are “the devil”. Do you feel that you have been listened to by other authorities and other organisations and individuals?

Minister, you have talked about management and protection, which are vital. You have gone into detail in some of your answers. I will ask about the implementation of a number of policies that come into play. The whole idea behind protecting such woodlands is to ensure that they are sustainable and that they continue.

In our round-table session, people touched on resources—what is being spent and how that is being managed—which have implications for what can be achieved. Knowledge and enforcement are other aspects, and you have touched on enforcement issues. Resource has a massive impact on what you can achieve in the short to medium term. What is the Scottish Government doing to enhance that? How are you tackling that situation? Without the financial resource to manage the situation, it becomes unsustainable.

Given all that, I think that it is probably time to close the petition. A lot of work has already been done, as you have just described, by the Scottish Government. However, in closing the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, it would be useful to write to the Scottish Government to ask when it expects that a new sector-specific scheme will become available; when details of that scheme, including how to apply for it, will be published; and how the scheme will be publicised to ensure that self-employed individuals in the sector will have the opportunity to ensure that they are supported and will be given the means that they have been requesting for some time.

The partnership working that is already taking place in some areas has been pioneering, but that is not the case across the piece in Scotland. Things are working well in some locations, but other communities have a long way to go to catch up. Do you feel that some communities are being left behind?

Given the timescales, are many of the existing policies that the Government has already advanced now at the stage at which they need to be reassessed? You spoke about resource. To make things happen, there perhaps needs to be a refresh as to what can be achieved. The situation becomes worse year on year. Given the amount of resource and staffing that are required, as well as the implementation, some of the policies that you put in place are just not fit for purpose in today’s society and in today’s market, when we are considering how we manage woodland. There has been an erosion in that area, and those policies might have had an impact on that.

As you have indicated, convener, the Scottish Government has said that it does not intend to change the voting system for MSPs. I am not aware that we can, in reality, take any further action on the petition, so we should thank the petitioner and close it under rule 15.7 of the standing orders.

Thank you. Lynne, you spoke about the grass roots and said that there is a lot of disparity in terms of how councils manage things, so is there a difference in terms of how successful the five themes have been in different council areas?

Thank you very much. Time is pressing, and my questions have been answered, but if others want to contribute I am more than happy to give them some time.

Good morning, and thank you for your comments so far.

I want to ask about the plan. As we know, five themes have been drawn out in the plan: accommodation, access to public services, better incomes, tackling racism and discrimination, and better representation. Davie Donaldson talked about the rhetoric. It is good to have all of those themes, but not all of them are working at the same level across the sector. What do you think will develop in the long term? At the moment, the biggest issue that is facing any individual is probably the cost of living crisis, which has a massive impact on all those themes.

It would be good to hear about priorities. Is any one of the themes seen as having a higher priority than the others or as overtaking the others in terms of the progress that is being made on it, or are they simply running in parallel with one another? Perhaps we can hear from Davie Donaldson first, as he has already expressed some very strong views on the matter.

Suzanne, in your opening remarks, you talked about frustrations in the sector. It would be good to hear your views on how the themes are being managed. Is there, for example, frustration with the process for developing long-term access?