Chamber and committees

I will turn to the Scottish National Investment Bank. Which, if any, of all those different policy initiatives are you directly involved in, or are you just monitoring them to look for opportunities?

When will we know?

Clearly, NPF4, with its hierarchy, puts biodiversity in a far stronger place than it has been in previously. That is in relation to land use change for planning purposes, but land use management has been happening on some land for generations. In many places, the stewardship of that land has been done very well. It concerns me when I hear about the idea of competing interests.

I was interested in what you said about shared interests, because that must be the solution—if it is a mixed market solution. Yes, there will be some public or community land, but most of this land is in private hands. Therefore, how will that work in practice? You talked about Cairngorms Connect, which was showcased at the Arctic Circle assembly in Iceland as a really good example of how that can be done. Is that the model that you hope will be used elsewhere, or will there be different solutions in different parts of the country, depending on land ownership but also the use of the land? Can you explain a bit more how you see that working in practice?

I would suggest that, from what we have been hearing, the Western Isles situation is a bit of a conflict zone just now, but I will leave that there for now.

I also referred to the proposed EU nature restoration law. Is that something that you would be looking to keep pace with to ensure that the biodiversity strategy embraces some of that thinking?

I would like to address the issues with return points. Small businesses in particular have concerns about limited space and lack of capital revenue to invest. You have addressed that to an extent, but there are two other issues: one relates to health and safety; the other relates to the distance to another return point. What engagement has there been with different organisations and groups on that? What are their concerns? In addition, when will you know whether convenience retailers are choosing either to establish a return point in their premises or to opt out?

Finally, will the gateway review identify whether there are sufficient and adequate resources—in particular, for SEPA and Zero Waste Scotland, which are key parts of the scheme?

It would be helpful for the committee’s planning of scrutiny and accountability matters during this parliamentary session if you could agree that, at some point soon, we could have an indication of when we might expect to see publication of the results of the gateway review.

Good morning, minister. You have talked about the need for mainstreaming, and we have heard from other witnesses that there are a number of areas in which biodiversity needs to be mainstreamed. There are opportunities in agricultural payments, the proposed land reform bill and circular economy bill, and the reviews of forestry policy, to name but a few. Are you satisfied that the opportunities for nature recovery are being given the right level of priority in those areas?

The March gateway review will be fairly critical to our understanding of how fit for purpose and how ready the scheme will be. Will the findings of the review be published, to enable scrutiny to take place? If so, when will they be published? How will progress be monitored, and how will decisions be taken in the run-up?

What is the biggest challenge to making that work effectively?