Chamber and committees

No. The extension will not have any impact on the timeframe. It will allow stakeholders a bit more time to make their submissions and representations, but it will not have any material impact on the planned timeline for the legislation.

Nature-based solutions are important and sit alongside aspects such as tackling the biodiversity crisis that we face. Some local authorities will be better provided for in terms of natural assets than others, purely due to geography. How can we make better use of those assets? How do we make them investable propositions? We are already doing work around peatland restoration, additional woodlands and so on. Is there a way in which we can work with local authorities to make better use of existing spaces that are not necessarily playing a role within nature-based solutions? Yes. Some of that is already happening. In my constituency, I can think of work that is being taken forward in the Hallglen area redeveloping an old colliery bing that has now been turned into a nature park to help to support biodiversity and has brought together a whole range of different stakeholders. Some of that work is already happening. Could we do more of it? Yes, I would like to see more of that happening. A big part of that is also local neighbourhoods and communities: how do we make better use of our community assets within a neighbourhood to support nature-based solutions? There is certainly more that we could do in that area.

On an investable proposition, we are taking forward work and looking at how we can make sure that we have what would be viewed as a clear set of principles around any private sector investment in nature-based solutions as an option that some local authorities and others might want to access. We need to do it in a way that is consistent with it being of a high standard and having a clear set of principles before we start opening it up widely to private sector investment.

The review of NPF4 has taken place and an updated NPF4 will be published in the next couple of months. I hope that that will deliver the tools that they believe are necessary to help to support them in delivering nature-based solutions and protecting the nature-based provisions they have in their local area. If local authorities feel that there are particular gaps in the existing planning regulations, I have no doubt that we would be more than willing to look at that, but I certainly want to make sure that local authorities have the necessary powers required to protect nature-based environments in their own local authority areas and also to act to develop areas in their own local authority areas. If there is a particular area that you feel is a gap, I am more than happy for us to take that away and for the planning minister to look at it as part of the NPF4 process. I hope that that is an issue that was flagged up during the review of NPF4—I have no doubt that it was.

We are moving across to forestry. You will be aware that we are reforming the forestry grant scheme to help to deliver our woodland creation targets. That is in part to make sure that the scheme delivers better public value and also helps to support our biodiversity strategy and our community wealth-building programmes. We are also looking to make sure that the scheme is more aligned with helping farmers to understand the benefits that they would gain from growing trees and supporting their farming business—we want to assist them in recognising the value that using part of their farmland for forestry may have to them as a business. Doing that will also help us to achieve our biodiversity and woodland creation targets.

In our land reform bill, we will propose reforms that will hopefully help to address some of the issues that you have highlighted. Overall, on the forestry side, we are trying to take an approach that makes it attractive to farmers and aligns more with their own thinking and helps to support them as businesses in taking forward any forestry support grant that they are provided with.

Donald Henderson might be able to say a bit more about the use of land and how that can be developed to help to support some of our nature-based solutions and tackle biodiversity loss. He may also be able to say a bit more about the forestry grant.

There are different levels of waste crime. There are the folk who undertake fly-tipping, and there are those who are involved in waste management activities that might be a cover for other criminal activity. When I was Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Police Scotland and our enforcement agencies carried out a lot of work on the involvement of serious and organised crime in waste management. That is not to say that there is a big issue in the sector, but some activities were suspected and investigated. There is a wider enforcement issue that is important in tackling serious and organised crime.

We aim to set out a range of commitments in the strategy to deliver on the policy. The strategy has three key themes or components, which are behaviour change, services and infrastructure, and enforcement. We seek to address the enforcement aspect that you mentioned, but also to change people’s behaviour, such as fly-tipping. The intention is that the strategy will have a six-year lifespan, with actions that will be rolled out and taken forward as part of the strategy over a two-year, four-year and six-year period. We will then assess that after the completion of the six-year period.

I am aware of that issue and the international movement on it. The reality is that any criminalisation is a justice matter, rather than being for my portfolio. I am not aware whether justice colleagues are pursuing the issue, but I can get back to the committee to say whether they are considering it. I am certainly aware of the issue and the international campaign on it.

Sure. We had a period when we had some water scarcity issues on a number of watercourses in Fife and in the south of Scotland. Presently, we have a single watercourse with a scarcity warning—the River Enrick is at a lower level. The others are no longer at levels that are of concern. If I recall correctly, people who have abstractors on the Enrick route already have in place a process to manage abstraction levels, so no orders have been made to tackle that issue at this stage.

I have found in my notes the other rivers that were affected. The Eden, the Tyne and the Tweed reached levels of significant scarcity due to the dry conditions, which resulted in the national water scarcity plan being activated. That meant that, for the first time in Scotland, abstraction licences had to be suspended, given the seriousness of the situation. As I said, only the River Enrick catchment area has a level of significant scarcity and arrangements are in place to manage that. The rest of the rivers are at levels of moderate scarcity or better.

Could you explain what you mean by that and how that links together?

Part of that goes back to a question I was answering earlier about helping to develop the capacity of local authority employees and council officers to take forward net zero proposals.

An organisation that works closely with local authorities on the circular economy is Zero Waste Scotland, which can provide additional support and advice to local authorities. I am not entirely sure whether it can provide training, but it can certainly provide assistance and expertise to local authorities on aspects of the circular economy.

We are also looking, through national planning framework 4, to make some changes to the way building use is considered as part of the planning process to help to encourage and develop the circular economy. The principal way to try to help local authorities, however, is through the skills that local authority or council officers need and making sure that we utilise the expertise that we have in Zero Waste Scotland, which already works closely with local authorities on aspects of the circular economy.

We are trying to take that forward through NPF4, which is due to be published in the next couple of months. Demolition should not be the default. It should be the last option to pursue. Whether a facility can be repurposed or redeveloped should be looked at first. Part of how we address that is through the guidance that we offer to local authorities through NPF4 so that they can make sure that that is embedded in their policy thinking and development as they go forward. NPF4 will be laid before the Parliament for the Parliament to make its views known on that as well, of course.