Chamber and committees

Which will be 31 January 2023.

The policy is a very strong one for young people, the climate emergency and the sustainability of buses, but the devil will be in the detail of the reimbursement rate. Liam Kerr and Jackie Dunbar raised that issue. Keeping close alignment with local authorities will be key to the policy’s success.

Collette Stevenson raised a very important point in relation to bus contracts. Some young people can get free bus transport because of the school transport legislation, but some do not. In many families, people do not live together. Sometimes a person who lives with one parent does not have access to free transport. Obviously, that has implications for the policy.

We welcome the broad thrust of the policy, but I encourage consideration of the sustainability of bus companies. What the policy means for individuals and how they live their lives will be an important part of the promotion of the policy and of the detail in working with local authorities on their transport contracts and with their education departments.

I encourage the minister to consider those things as the policy is—I hope—successfully rolled out.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am conscious of the time, but perhaps we have time to hear Jocelyn Richard talk about the assembly’s recommendations about empowering communities and, in particular, the funding and resources that are needed to empower people to take action.

When the cabinet secretary appeared before the committee, he said that we are facing a twin crisis: a climate crisis and a crisis in nature and biodiversity loss, which is just as important as climate change.

Nick Halfhide, what does NatureScot think the Government should do more of to ensure that biodiversity loss is not overshadowed by the climate crisis? What are SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland doing to ensure that those twin crises are treated with equal importance?

What, for you, are the big priorities in the programme? I am particularly interested in what it will require you to do about land use. What are the priorities, and are there any pressures associated with them?

We might want to come back to land use and flooding at some point. Iain Gulland, is there anything that you want to add on the programme for government’s priorities or on land use?

What, for you, are the priorities in the programme for government, particularly with regard to land use?

I also have a small, though meaningful, supplementary to that question. There is an increasing tendency for people in urban areas to pave over their gardens, and I would be interested in getting from you a sense of what short-term or longer-term impact that sort of very local land use issue will have.

However, the big-picture question is about the land use priorities in the programme for government. Perhaps I can take the witnesses in the same order as before.

I would be interested in the minister’s response, because he can help make that work happen.

Thank you for joining us. My initial question is for Andrew Richards from Construction Scotland, but I want to ask all the witnesses about the cumulative impact of supply chain pressures and resilience planning. I am interested in not just immediate mitigations, but measures for the future.

I thank Construction Scotland for its hard work during the pandemic and for continuing to operate in the context of safety measures. I am very conscious that, as you have just set out, in many countries, including Scotland, construction can be seen as—and is—a way to drive economic recovery. I want to explore further some of what you have just said. Please feel free to set out in more detail, with examples, the impacts that you are seeing of supply chain pressures on our drive to secure more economic recovery through construction.