Chamber and committees

Mr Forgie, I have twice asked a really simple question: is the money that is coming from the wind farms to mitigate any issue with radar being ring-fenced specifically to upgrade your radar? That is all that I am asking you.

Sorry—the board reports to the shareholder, which is the Scottish Government. The board’s commercial interest is therefore your commercial interest.

I am happy to do that. Again, I spent some time with NATS last week to understand exactly what is required from a radar system from its perspective. However, that is not just at Prestwick; it is a network of radar systems across Scotland.

I would like to address one more issue. I heard that there was a runway report in 2019. I presume that you are aware of that?

I am pleased to hear the cabinet secretary take that approach, but it stands in contrast to what I heard earlier from the airport, to be frank.

Anna, would you like to add anything?

My questions are for Jocelyn Blériot and Anna Larsson. At the moment, there is a lot of focus in Scotland on single-use items, such as vapes, and we are also looking at the disposal of unsold goods. The bill would give the Scottish Government powers to tackle those issues, but are there any international examples that we should be focusing on and which we could emulate to help us develop more successful legislation? I would ask that, when you answer, you comment, please, on how we can engage with business, as it is so important that we take business with us and ensure that there is no uncertainty about how to do business.

I put that question to Jocelyn first.

It was about charges for single-use products and whether we should adopt that idea.

Thank you very much.

I am going to try to dip my toe into the murky waters of the difference between devolved and reserved areas and how they could interact with the bill. I want to avoid some of the troubles that we have had in the past in developing policy in this area. I assume that my questions are for Aileen and Feja, but if I am wrong in that, please tell me.

As you said, there is a real complexity around the interactions. Although waste is a devolved policy area, it will inevitably interact with UK reserved areas, such as EPR and, as we saw recently, the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 has also raised its head. I will ask a few questions about the key challenges in navigating that complex environment, especially because, as we heard earlier, divergence in policy is not necessarily a bad thing, in that one devolved nation can lead another by highlighting good practice. How do we use the common frameworks to support that policy coherence?

We have recent experience of the internal market act and its effect on the deposit return scheme and the single-use plastics ban. How do we utilise those opportunities and avoid some of the—to use a technical term—bun fighting that took place recently?

I will ask Feja to answer first. If I am going to the wrong people here, please let me know.