Chamber and committees

The committee will publish a report setting out its recommendations on the instrument tomorrow. As that was the final public item on our agenda, I now close the public part of the meeting.

Okay—thank you for that response. I thank the minister and his officials for the evidence that they have given us today. Thank you so much, minister—I understand that Covid is a challenging experience, having had it myself, and I think that you are doing a great job. I appreciate you being here with us this morning.

Item 5 is consideration of the motion on the instrument. I invite the minister to move motion S6M-13502.

Motion moved,

That the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee recommends that the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Amendment Order 2024 be approved.—[Paul McLennan]

Do members wish to make any further comments on the instrument?

Okay—thank you for that. I have a couple of process questions. First, I am interested to hear who you consulted and how as you developed the changes in the order. Secondly, how did the results of that consultation shape the final content of the order?

The second item on our agenda is a decision on taking agenda items 6 and 7 in private. Do we agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Are you saying that there is a level of nuance in that?

Absolutely. He wants to make sure that we are advocating properly.

Miles Briggs has some questions.

I would welcome that.

We turn to agenda item 4, under which we will take evidence on the draft Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Amendment Order 2024 from Paul McLennan, who is Minister for Housing in the Scottish Government. As members know, Mr McLennan will give evidence remotely. He is joined online by Scottish Government officials Craig McGuffie, who is a lawyer; Jessica Niven, who is unit head in the more homes division; and Andy Kinnaird, who is head of transforming planning.

I welcome the minister and his officials to the meeting, and I invite the minister to make a brief opening statement.

Thank you for that. I think that you touched on this in your opening statement, but I would like to get a better understanding—without getting into too much detail, because members have a number of questions—of what the problem is that the order is trying to fix through the provisional licence provisions. What was the problem that you identified that meant that you needed the order to address that?