Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Official Report 615KB pdf
Contents
- Attendance
- Decision on Taking Business in Private
- Scottish Water’s Annual Report 2015-16
- Subordinate Legislation
Subordinate Legislation
Air Quality Standards (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2016 (SSI 2016/376)
Under agenda item 3, the committee is asked to consider the regulations. The details of the negative instrument are to be found in the papers. Do members have any comments?
I have a comment that is not so much about the statutory instrument as about the context in which it is being introduced. The Scottish Government was cited in the recent High Court judgment in ClientEarth v the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In broad terms, the ruling was that the UK as a whole state is failing to meet the current air quality standards and regulations. That has a number of implications, so it would be useful to get some clarity about the Scottish Government’s response to that ruling and our compliance with existing air quality standards, which has implications for the adoption of more stringent standards.
Mark Ruskell makes a good point about the case that he mentioned. It would be useful to know whether the Government is to bring forward the policy of low emission zones, which have been implemented in parts of London, where the money is hypothecated to helping local authorities. There are plans for such zones, and the two issues are related. Low-emission zones might help with compliance with the court judgment.
Those two points are valid but do not relate directly to the Scottish statutory instrument. With the proviso that we will write to ask the Scottish Government about those two perfectly reasonable points, does the committee agree that it does not wish to make any recommendations on the regulations?
Members indicated agreement.
At its next meeting, on 13 December, the committee will hold its second session to take evidence from a variety of stakeholders and academics on deer management. As agreed earlier, we now move into private session.
12:01 Meeting continued in private until 13:09.