Chamber and committees

Just to be clear, SLARC began meeting in April 2023. The council tax freeze, which impacted relationships, happened in October 2023. Then SLARC reported in February, which was five months before the UK elections. I just wanted to get clear on that, because I think that we were starting to talk about different Aprils there.

Willie Coffey will continue our questions on SLARC’s recommendations.

The second item on our agenda is to decide whether to take item 5 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you very much. It was good to hear COSLA’s perspective.

We have a number of questions on areas that both of you have touched on, illuminated and possibly given us some answers to, but we want to dig down a bit further.

Angela Leitch, I will come to you first. In your opening statement, you said—I will paraphrase you, perhaps badly—that, if SLARC had understood the Government’s response, it would have made a recommendation on a shared approach. To what extent was the issue of who should cover the cost of SLARC’s recommendations discussed before the committee started its work?

Yes.

Fulton MacGregor, do you want to round us off with a final question?

Angela Leitch has indicated that she wants to come in.

Given the complexity of the work that needs to be done, do you think that the budget allocation has been underestimated?

You might be hinting at my next question. At last week’s round-table session, several stakeholders talked about how communication with the marine directorate has become increasingly difficult, as has obtaining transparency in relation to its work. When it has been asked why statutory requirements have not been met, the marine directorate has at times said that it has had to deal with too many freedom of information requests, as well as judicial reviews, which has used up its time and resources. It might be argued that, if the marine directorate is being inundated with FOI requests, that might be because it is not being as open and transparent as a public body should be.

How are FOI requests managed? Is the volume of FOIs indicative of a failure in transparency and partnership working with stakeholders? What is the marine directorate’s position on publishing data that is collected using public money, for example, as part of projects that have been funded by the marine fund Scotland?

Connected to that, I am interested in hearing to what degree you are looking at moving away from area-based greening measures and adding whole-business measures such as no use of pesticides, minimal use of bagged nitrogen and a percentage of feed source being on farm.

The route map has been a helpful tool, so thanks for that.