Chamber and committees

As will the committee.

Is the Scottish Government looking to other international developments in finalising the biodiversity strategy? Are there implications arising from the recently agreed UN high seas treaty? If Màiri McAllan is the lead minister on marine issues, how is she influencing the biodiversity strategy? How is the development of the European Union’s nature restoration law being factored into the final version of the strategy or into the version that will go out for consultation with the delivery plan?

Is that Màiri McAllan’s area of responsibility, or is it yours?

Scotland has vast rural and island areas and it has small convenience stores in villages and small towns. There is also concern about whether such communities will have return points. I understand that registration is an iterative process and that there are logistical considerations, not least for Biffa on collection. People might fear that collections will be few and far between.

What assurances can you give? Is that a matter for Circularity Scotland, or can you, as a minister, make it clear that you want the scheme to work for all parts of Scotland—not just for urban areas but for semi-rural, island and remote communities?

I want to ask about the March gateway review. Is that taking place currently? Who is conducting it?

Who does the gateway review?

The first time that natural capital was included in an economic recovery plan, it was not the national strategy for economic transformation, but the Covid economic recovery plan, which was published almost three years ago in 2020. I am interested in the action that has been taken in those—dare I say it—two and a half years rather than what has happened in the national strategy for economic transformation.

Moving on, we have talked about the more obvious areas with regard to mainstreaming. As we know, most Government agencies and departments understand the need to embed net zero, as that is one of the crises that we are seeking to address, but what about biodiversity, which is the other crisis that we are dealing with? Have you compared the extent to which it and net zero have been embedded as mainstream activities in other agencies? Do you have forums for bringing together public agencies to discuss what they are doing to tackle nature loss and biodiversity? How does this work in the not-so-obvious areas?

Finally, is there some forum in which you bring all ministers together to discuss biodiversity, nature loss and so on? Has that happened at any point?

The UN treaty covers the 30 by 30 pledge for both land and sea. My understanding is that Scotland already has 37 per cent of its marine area covered. The sensitivity of ensuring that we live with local economies while addressing marine protection—certainly in inshore areas—is therefore of particular concern, and we know of, for example, Western Isles Council’s concerns on the proposed HMPAs.

I am not expecting you to deal with that today, as that topic is for another minister, but we should register the point that marine spatial planning must be very sensitive and sensible. We would be looking for a commonsense view to be taken. That will be a key aspect of what we will be looking for in the biodiversity strategy. There must be a balance and a sharing of responsibility, so that what we heard must apply to the land must apply very much to the sea, too. Is that an approach that you would welcome?

We should probably pursue the issue of practicalities in rural areas with Circularity Scotland.