That is an interesting question. The hallmark of the Scottish and UK frameworks, under the respective pieces of legislation, is that, when the evidence supports doing so, we revisit the targets. Of course, it is about 10 years since those frameworks were put in place, so this is the moment to do so.
09:45
In response to your question, I say that, first, it is difficult to be certain what will happen with evidence in the future. Therefore, we have been prudent and cautious in our approach to aspects such as cost reduction and, on that basis, I think that we can be confident that the costs are in the right ball park.
The second thing is that the position is not static. The application of policy has a direct impact, especially on cost. There is an excellent—I would say that, wouldn’t I?—section in the report on what happens then, which is that we get a very happy feedback loop. When policy is framed in the right way and markets respond in the right way, there is a remarkable impact on cost. However, we have been prudent. We have not seen those cost falls in all areas—most notably not in nuclear, for example. It is appropriate for us to be prudent and transparent about the way in which we approach these things.
The question of when we might return to the target is difficult. A period of a decade has been useful in allowing us to establish what happens when we have a framework such as this and policy steps up to address the issue. We have had several changes of Government over that period, both in Scotland and at UK level. The key component of the success of this bill when it becomes an act is that it should ride out those kinds of political shifts. I feel that this is the appropriate time for us to revisit the target, but there may well be a time to look at it again in the future.
My last point is that we do not have that much more time to achieve such targets, so the luxury of looking at the issue and thinking that we have decades of time will soon evaporate. Setting such a target at this moment is a fundamental step. I do not expect that we will be revisiting it any time soon. One of the straplines that I was using with the team when we were putting the report together is that I do not want to do it again. This is the moment for us to do as fundamental a piece of work as we can, so that Parliaments up and down the land can make the right decisions.