Environment and Rural Development Committee, 28 Jan 2004

Meeting date: Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Official Report 270KB pdf

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Renewable Energy

We move to item 3 on the agenda. Members will remember that we asked at our last meeting for information about the Enterprise and Culture Committee's inquiry on renewable energy, as it raises a number of issues that cross over into our environmental remit. Members have a useful paper from the clerk that outlines the remit of the inquiry and summarises the progress that that committee has made so far. The paper mentions the issues that the committee is raising and gives information about the oral evidence that it is taking and the visits that it has made. We also have a briefing note from the Scottish Parliament information centre, so we have some useful background information about the inquiry. The key thing now is to decide how to proceed to ensure that our environmental perspectives are fed into the process.

It is important that our environmental perspectives are fed into the process. It would be useful for us to appoint a reporter who would be responsible for working with the Enterprise and Culture Committee to keep an eye on what is happening. Given your previous experience and interests, convener, I suggest that you would be an appropriate person to fulfil that role.

I would be interested in doing that, because I am involved in the cross-party renewable energy group. I am keen to ensure that our top environmental and rural priorities are not missed by the Enterprise and Culture Committee. That committee, quite rightly, has a very strong economic development focus.

The Enterprise and Culture Committee's inquiry has been going on for about three weeks, if not longer. We have already been missing opportunities to question witnesses and give input. That may, for whatever reasons, have been unavoidable until now, but I wonder whether we could in future have better advance warning of matters that might come up in committees that are likely from time to time to hold inquiries on issues that cross over into some of our issues. I agree that we could have a reporter, but we are in the process of appointing one when the Enterprise and Culture Committee is, I suspect, about to draw its inquiry to an end.

As I understand it, Tuesday 30 March is the end date for that committee's inquiry—so the inquiry is longer than the inquiry into waste. I want to get a briefing for committee members now, so that we can focus on the matter and offer reasonable input.

You mentioned Tuesday. Is that the day that the Enterprise and Culture Committee sits?

Yes.

So you do not want to do it, Alasdair.

Yes, that rules you out.

Yes—include me out.

I have thought about this. Obviously, I have a pretty heavy work load as convener but—to pick up on Roseanna Cunningham's point—I would hate us to miss out on offering environmental input to a major report that will shape renewables policy in Scotland. We need to keep up to speed with the inquiry as it develops. I need members to identify key issues, just as we did for Rob Gibson. At short notice, we gave him about six questions to take to the Enterprise and Culture Committee.

Convener, you are the only Edinburgh-based MSP on this committee.

And your point is?

My point is that I am happy to think of ways of filling your time on a Tuesday afternoon.

That was not my intention in volunteering to do some work.

There are some non-Edinburgh based MSPs who also work on Tuesday afternoons. However, they do not have the same credentials as Sarah Boyack has for this reporter's job.

Thank you, Maureen. You have given me both faint praise and strong praise.

I will look into the matter and, through correspondence, keep people up to date on timescales. I know that you all have strong constituency interests in the inquiry, as well as policy interests. I will talk to the clerks and work out a set of proposals. Members will be kept informed and will be able to ask questions.

We are the Environment and Rural Development Committee so we have two reasons to take an interest.

I echo the convener's point: we all have a considerable general interest in the inquiry, as well as our constituency interest. As with all such problems, attending every cross-party group that interests one is not always possible—often, three are on at the same time. I have a strong interest in the issue because I want the policy to be balanced, from this committee's point of view. I hope that we can get an early idea of the framework of the renewable energy inquiry, so that we can have an input. We may have views that are of value to the Enterprise and Culture Committee.

The whole point of putting the item on today's agenda was so that we could have an input. Looking round the room, I can see that every member has a strong interest, from a variety of standpoints.

We could talk about this for ages, but I think that we have come to a conclusion on how to proceed.