Chamber and committees

I am learning about this every day. The Istanbul convention was signed by the UK Government in June 2012. As you mention in your evidence, however, the UK has yet to ratify it. Is ratification of such conventions something on which the Scottish Parliament could make decisions?

I do not know whether Professor Armstrong—

I return to the issue of transparency. Last week and this, the committee took evidence from various organisations that have raised concerns about what might be called a race to the bottom if we are not aligning with EU law. They mentioned the environment and public health, and today we heard about human rights. How is the Scottish Government liaising with such organisations to allow us to learn from their experience and from the connections that they have across the EU or more widely, so that we can know about the legislation that impacts on those areas?

Thank you for joining us this morning. Mr Ruskell’s questions overlap the one that I want to ask. I was interested in the evidence that Mhairi gave on advancing human rights. How are you able to continue to plug into what is happening in the EU and around the world on that? Is there anything that you want to add to what you have said?

I will raise an issue that we were asked about earlier. Previously, organisations would have had funds, or would have been able to apply for European funds, to support their structure and to enable them to feed in. This is probably not an issue for you, cabinet secretary, but I make a plea to the Scottish Government to recognise that in the forthcoming budget.

Yes.

Thank you. Because of time constraints, I will pass back to the convener.

I thank the panel for their evidence, which has been really interesting. I represent a west coast constituency. Finlay Carson started our questions by asking about Scotland and the rest of the world. I am interested in delving into the differences between the east coast and the west coast in Scotland. Last week, I visited the Scottish Association for Marine Science, which is based just north of Oban, and I learned about the research that it is doing. I was introduced to a robotic device that was about to head off from there all the way up to Iceland to learn about the changes in water. It will send back data in real time.

As well as hearing about the differences between the east and the west, I am interested in finding out what data is being collected to contribute to assessments of the health of the marine environment, where there might be gaps in that collection, and where more research is required. Dr Marshall talked about the limited number of scientists. How are we growing the scientist population through the various universities represented here but also through the Scottish Association for Marine Science?

I ask Professor Bill Austin to start.

Returning to the first question, how will the legislation help when minibuses with more than one person in them might be used to try to bring in larger numbers of young pups or kittens?

I am interested in hearing your views on the importance of forestry to climate change mitigation and of growing the right trees in the right places. As Professor Metzger said, there is a balance to be struck; every answer has indicated that there should be a balance. On the one hand, the UK is a mass importer of timber, but, on the other hand, we want to protect our existing trees and the associated biodiversity that they provide. What are your thoughts on getting that balance right?

I thank the panel for their submissions. I would like to follow up on that vein of questioning. As Alison Douglas just said, devolution has given nation-specific organisations an easier link into the decision-making and policy-shaping process that is specific to each of our nations. I am interested to hear from all of you about how you think the legislation will impact on your ability to do that. I will go to Vhairi Tollan first.

Vhairi, at one point in your submission, you describe a race to the bottom. Could you also expand on that?