Chamber and committees

If you have parked a certain aspect, how do you communicate to stakeholders who work in the area that it is okay and that we are moving forward?

I will dig down a bit further on divergence. The Soil Association Scotland, in its response to the call for views, raised a number of concerns. It noted:

“the framework for Organic Production states that there is ‘existing disagreement’ between parties on whether certain matters are devolved or reserved”,

and it pointed out:

“It is concerning that there is such a lack of clarity about what is devolved and what is reserved, several years after ... the UK officially left the EU.”

I am curious to learn what work is being done on that specific framework to generate clarity. We have an ambition for organic production, and it would be useful to hear what is going on there.

I get the overall impression that there is a sense that common frameworks are a positive measure. They are about collaboration through agreement rather than about imposition. I am curious to hear whether, in the future, such frameworks could be created in areas that are currently reserved to or legislated for by Westminster, thereby strengthening devolution instead.

So, there is not specifically a new common framework, but there are areas in which collaboration is agreed upon, and it seems that that is happening more.

My question is about funding capacity for the additional work.

There is the work that you need to do in your directorate in relation to policy in Scotland; there is the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, through which we are tracking what is going on in the EU; and now there are the common frameworks and the need to track the relationships between the four devolved nations. Is there agreed resource and funding that makes it possible for you to do that work well, or are we having to stretch between departments and move people around? It seems that another layer of work has to take place. Is there funding for that?

Thanks very much for those comments. It was good to hear about the Scottish digital transformation project last week, and it is good to hear from you right now that it will be rolled out next year.

I will open up the session to questions. I will start. What, if any, engagement did your officials or Scottish Government planning officials have with the UK Government on planning data prior to the introduction of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill in the UK Parliament? You have indicated that there was a lack of consultation and collaboration in a way, but I am also interested to know whether any work was done before consideration of the bill.

Yes, we can. That is great.

Thank you for that response. Before your next question, Miles, I would like to bring in Paul McLennan with a supplementary question on that issue.

Talat Yaqoob, do you know about the access to elected office fund and whether that is having an impact?

Okay—super. Miles Briggs, do you have more questions?