Chamber and committees

Thank you for that. We will move to a question from Paul McLennan.

Thank you for the responses. We will move on.

The next question is addressed to the three councillors who are with us. Again, answers should be kept brief, but that might be difficult to do for the first person taking the question. We would like to have the councillors talk us through what a normal week looks like. How much time do you spend on councillor duties, and how do you fit in other things in your lives, such as other work, running a business or caring responsibilities, which we heard about earlier?

In the interests of time, I will tack on to that another question. Can you tell us how much you are paid and whether you think councillors should be paid more for the work that they are doing? If so, how much should that be? I will start with Kelly Parry.

Roslyn MacPherson, will you share your perspective from having stood as a candidate in the Western Isles?

The second agenda item is an evidence session on the draft Scottish Dog Control Database Order 2021. I welcome the Minister for Community Safety, Ash Regan; Jim Wilson, who is licensing team leader in the Scottish Government; and Louise Miller, who is a solicitor in the Scottish Government. We will take evidence from the minister before we move to a formal debate on the draft order. I invite the minister to make a short opening statement on the order.

Thank you for that. I hope that more of the complexity comes out through our questioning, as we go on.

Miles Briggs will lead on questions on the next theme.

In relation to the ban on live animal exports for slaughter, is the Scottish Government considering further regulations on animal transport, and will those be progressed at a Scotland or a UK level?

Does anyone else want to comment on enhancement?

Professor Boyd, you talked about the need to look at changing the infrastructure in our coastal communities. Have you had a chance to look at the national planning framework 4? Perhaps you have not, because it came out only recently and it is quite a big tome. If you have, do you think that it reflects the need for a radical change for our coastal communities? Do the policies and the spatial planning give us the right steer towards the radical level at which we need to do things?

I will start with Professor Bill Austin.

Thank you. Could I also hear from Professor Sir Ian Boyd?