Chamber and committees

That was very insightful.

I will go back to Gary Fuller and ask him about the WHO limits. Should the Scottish Government be adopting those limits? What would be required of us if we were to step up to adopting those limits?

Paul, do you have anything to add from the public transport perspective?

I was going to ask about some areas later on, convener.

You have covered quite a few aspects of what makes an effective approach to local air quality management, such as delivery groups having a spread to other council areas, and I think that you mentioned communication when talking about the monitoring of LEZs. Are there any other aspects at the core of the successful delivery of air quality management through air quality management plans?

Perhaps I should put it the other way around, because it seems that you are all working on delivery groups and that they are well established as part of your approach. Is it possible to have an effective approach without a delivery group? I ask that because there are councils in Scotland that have not set up delivery groups, even though they have AQMAs in place.

Do you want to add anything on monitoring?

I have a supplementary question for Gary Fuller about a technical issue with monitoring. When I looked at the air pollution data for Perth for the past week, I noticed that, if we average out the air pollution data over a week, it comes in under the limit value, but if we look at particular times of the day, we can see that it spikes quite strongly. Are there issues with the way in which we collate and interpret air quality data in this country?

That leads me on to my next question, which is about those Environmental Standards Scotland recommendations on air quality action plans. There are recommendations on timescale, for example, and, as you say, new guidance will be coming out. What are your reflections on how achievable the timescales for completion will be? I will put that question to Kenny Bisset, because I know that Fife Council has won the award for the fastest production of an air quality action plan, for Cupar. I am not sure whether that is because issues are simpler in Cupar or whether it is down to the effectiveness of your teams and your process for developing the plan. What is your reaction to the ESS recommendation that there need to be timescales for production?

Are there resources implications for producing a fast air quality action plan, such as the one that you have managed to achieve for Cupar?