Chamber and committees

I am interested in how you consult island communities to understand exactly what they need. Like Ms Wishart, I have had a large volume of emails from islanders who are concerned about the rocketing price of fuel. They tend to use fuel oil, on which there is no cap. How do you listen to what islanders need, and how are you getting such information into your systems?

Mr Anderson, in the point that you made in response to Dr Allan’s question about the way you think things should move forward, you twice referenced the 12 suggestions that you have made and you went on to expand on how you could bring some pragmatic solutions to issues. I am interested to hear a bit more about how you think businesses could be more involved in the process.

That is helpful. The idea might be to treat everything consistently, but some areas are working well changes that are made could throw up other issues and have unintended consequences. Mr Billington, do you have anything to add?

I did have one, but Rachael Hamilton has covered quite a bit of it.

We could probably move on to discuss the licensing scheme. If the bill is passed and the scheme is brought in, how will the Scottish Government monitor the information that NatureScot provides to ensure that the licence is as appropriate as it should be?

Thank you for coming along, minister. Beatrice Wishart has covered most of the questions that I had in this area. However, to follow on from the comments of Karen Adam and Alasdair Allan, we have had some evidence from the RSPB and the Law Society of Scotland about how “non-native species” is defined in the bill. Would you like to comment on that?

Will you expand on your comment about these things being “possible to do” in the 14-day period? Some farmers have said to me that it is a difficult timeframe to work within, so it might be helpful to understand the evidence that you have had to back up the decision to make the period 14 days.

That is great. Thank you.

Thank you for confirming that.

Minister, just for the record, will you explain why the Scottish Government has decided to introduce licensing?

There has been some discussion about the 14-day maximum period for control reasons versus the two years for environmental reasons. You have said that you want arrangements that are correct, workable and practical, but from the perspective of my constituency and other large areas of Scotland, this is all about how small farmers rather than foot packs operate. I would like to hear your thoughts on that, please.

I thank the panel for joining us this morning. I will start my first question with a quote from David Smith, director of screen at Screen Scotland:

“Channel 4 and the BBC are keystones in Scotland’s growing film and television production sector.”

Jo, I think that I remember you from BBC Scotland, so I would be interested in your thoughts on that specifically, perhaps from both a BBC Scotland and a Channel 4 perspective. How do both broadcasters support public service broadcasting in Scotland?