Chamber and committees

Bill Kidd has some questions.

One of the points in the report is that Scottish Canals needs to consider the value for money of its approach to valuations, including whether it is getting value for money from the consultants that it engages. Have you seen any evidence that it is doing that?

I will move on to a different question, which is about the leadership of the organisation. We are aware that the former chief executive of Scottish Canals left and that, as recently as May this year, a new chief executive started. Was there a gap before that position was filled and, if there was a gap, has that contributed to some of the difficulties?

Mark Taylor mentioned earlier that there had been a risk warning about this being a possibility as far back as 2012; we are almost a decade on and auditors are still issuing disclaimers. Some fundamental problems still exist, such as turbulence in the finance team and the leadership of the organisation, and so on. Why is Transport Scotland not injecting some stability into that equation?

We are trying our best to be strategic this morning and not to get too much into pork-barrel politics, Mr Hoy.

I call the deputy convener.

Okay, but to again go back to Sharon Dowey’s point, why set a target if it is not an informed target that is realistic and achievable? I think that that is a legitimate question that we are posing this morning.

Another area relating to the restoration of nature is the investment in woodland, forestry and so on, which again is not quite meeting the target. Does that take the shape of grants to private landowners and to some of the equity funds that are involved in the carbon offset racket?

I turn to Alison Irvine for a particular area of interest, which is the whole question of net zero targets and what we are doing on transport. As you rightly say, that is first and foremost about getting people on to public transport. However, one of the other goals that the Government has set is on electric vehicle charging networks and so on. I noticed recently that an announcement was made that the Government was withdrawing from the EV charging network ChargePlace Scotland and leaving that to the private sector. Is that correct?

Choose your own words, Ms Irvine.

It is reported that £65 million of public expenditure has been invested in the EV charging network. What happens to that? Do we get it back?

Willie Coffey has got another question.