Chamber and committees

Thank you. I have a follow-up question for you, David. You talked about problems with enforcement, which I appreciate, and about resourcing. If we were to increase the level of penalties, would it be helpful if there were some mechanism whereby you could ring fence that money, so that it went back into better enforcement, for example, to be more resource for your team?

I would like to change direction a little bit and ask about the just transition fund. We took some evidence last week from community groups that have benefited from the fund. We also heard different views on the way the fund was being administered by the Scottish National Investment Bank.

I would like to start by asking you whether you have any particular view on the just transition fund generally. Do you think that it is appropriate that it is being handled by the Scottish National Investment Bank, as opposed to another body? Is there enough transparency around the fund and how it is being administered?

Thank you. That was a very helpful and comprehensive answer.

On innovation and new technologies being developed, is there enough awareness in companies in the sector about the just transition fund? How easy is it to access that fund?

Yes.

Thank you.

So the fund is not helpful to you in your skills work.

Thank you. That is very helpful. Does anybody want to add anything?

I appreciate that time is short, so I will just ask one question. It is about the just transition fund, which we have not really touched on yet. To what extent is the fund supporting innovation and the development of new technologies? Do you have a view on the way that the fund operates, with the Scottish National Investment Bank as, in effect, the gatekeeper for the fund?

Okay. Thank you.

On your point about people struggling to pay the fines, when we did some research, the committee found that, increasingly, organised crime is involved in collecting industrial waste in particular and dumping it. As you fairly said earlier, it is a crime that is very hard to detect, and the chances of being caught are, therefore, very low. If you are caught, the penalties are so low that they are not a risk. The idea of increasing the fines is more to catch those people rather than the householder who gets rid of a mattress in the wrong place.