Chamber and committees

Thank you. I formally apologise to everyone for being late to the committee because of family circumstances. I also apologise if there is a degree of duplication because I missed something. I hope that there is not.

I want to ask about exemptions. If I have understood it correctly, there are some exemptions in the statutory instrument. If someone passes away, a certificate of exemption can be transferred under certain circumstances, and there is still a rehoming exemption for puppies up to 31 July. Therefore, the Government has conceded that there are certain circumstances in which exemptions can be brought in.

The minister and I had a constructive meeting, even if it was not ultimately fruitful for me. I ask her to put on record why she believes that it is not possible to have an exemption for someone who moves house through no fault of their own to a place that is restrictive as to whether they can have any pet or any dog whatsoever. That is not even specific to XL bullies. That person cannot gift or transfer a certificate of exemption to another individual, which I think is pretty unfair. What is the Government’s position on that?

Would that be both in the short term and the long term?

Theoretically, if someone has their exemption certificate and has to give up their dog in October for whatever reason, through no fault of their own, they would not qualify for compensation as things stand, but the Government is perhaps open minded about reviewing that.

Therefore, although the trend is upwards, it is all still at a relatively modest level.

I do not wish to make things more complicated than they have to be. I think that what I am hearing from you is that some of the yield will be in, for example, year 5, year 10, year 15 , year 20 and so on, and that those investing can take some of that yield now by selling PIUs on to others, which will allow them to do some of the work that must be done. This might be overly simplistic, but are PIUs a way of getting money out in the early years for gains that will come in future years? Have I got that bit right?

I know that that is a very simplistic way of looking at it. In that case, I have a different question. Sorry about that, convener.

I am sorry that the witnesses do not have in front of them the table that I am looking at. I suppose that we will soon have estimates for 2023-24 under the woodland and peatland carbon codes. However, no one is citing what future investments might look like. If we were talking about housing, for example, we would know that there was £X million-worth of investment in the background, how many units that might represent, what the yield might look like and so on. How can we track what future investment might look like? Is that quantified anywhere?

Okay. I appreciate your trying to answer that question as best you could, based on what I was asking you.

I think that it is fair to say that members will be on a learning curve for some of this.

What levels of activity are there in natural capital finance in Scotland, and what impact is that having on land use? Convener, I have a supplementary question, which I will roll in due to time constraints, so that I do not have to come in twice on the same point.

My questions are about current levels of activity and the impact that that is having on land use. It would also be interesting for anyone who is watching the session to get an idea of your organisation’s interest in the sector, to give a context to your evidence. Perhaps Stuart Greenwood could start.

That is helpful, because, in evidence, we are hearing about modest numbers, but the activity with regard to woodland has trebled in four years. To an outsider, that looks like significant growth, but it is still relatively modest, given what we have to do.

I will move on. It was helpful to get everyone to set the scene, but it might be that not everyone will need to answer my next question. We are keen to know what is motivating different actors to engage in the area. What is making investors get involved? For example, what is motivating land managers to develop and certify projects, and what is motivating investors and buyers on the market side? What is getting those investors involved and land managers to come to the table and play games? What are the driving factors? A couple of witnesses might want to get some of that information on the record. Mr Paterson is nodding at me, so I suspect that he wants to come in.

On diversification, Mr Paterson talked about revenues. Does any witness have anything to add that is not already on the record?