Do you know how depressing that is for me? I sat on the predecessor committee in 2018 when it recommended that poorly sited fish farms should be relocated to take away the threat in relation to their production from high mortality levels and their effect on wild fish where the farms are sited on existing migratory routes, and now you are telling me that, six years later, that has not been implemented. Would you be depressed?

On a point of order, Deputy Presiding Officer. I think that the minister was disingenuous when she responded to my question. I opposed the site at Milton of Leys, which is not where the prison is being built. Will the minister correct the record to say that I did not oppose construction of a Highland prison? I have been supporting it since 2006.

I am pleased to hear that the prison might be completed on time, although I am still not sure whether to believe that.

What steps will be taken to ensure that, when it is completed, prison accommodation will be available for female prisoners?

It was barely a year after the independence referendum when my son, having just returned from Afghanistan, was head-butted in Inverness by somebody who felt that he had no right to be there, because his father was a supporter of the union. That is not joyous; that is not civic. As far as going for an independence vote is concerned, if those people want to go forward with it, they have to prove their competence in government, and this Government does not have a record of competence over 17 years. We have higher taxes. We have a Scottish National Investment Bank that lost £14.6 million last year, and, when the committee questioned witnesses from the bank, they did not even know what the rate of return was on the £435 million that they had invested.

I am not sure that I follow that logic. The United Kingdom is a united front of people who stand together behind one flag and one Government, and that is what I am prepared to defend.

We have rising waiting lists in the national health service, and there has been a failure to meet cancer waiting times, including for chemotherapy and radiotherapy—I know about that. There has been a decline in our educational ability in maths and science; we have an increasing attainment gap; we have failed to reach our climate change targets; we have not had the A9 dualled, as was promised, or the A96; and we have ferries that are costing us at least £400 million, instead of £100 million, and which are seven years late.

Yes, but those are all things that—as, I am sure, Ms Slater understands—are the responsibility of the Scottish Government and that the Scottish Government can control. If she does not understand that, I am surprised that she was a minister.

Let us be quite clear that we also have an ageing ferry fleet.

As I made clear earlier, I am very happy to stand up and defend the union every day, and I will be very happy to raise a glass—albeit only with water—this evening to toast the Greens, because they have made defending the union easier through their incompetence in government, with their failed deposit return scheme, which will cost this country millions of pounds, and their failed action on rent control.

I say to members who are sitting in the chamber making lots of noise about why they think that Scotland should be independent that, instead of doing that, they should get on and prove their competence in government, which they have failed to do for 17 years. Frankly, I find that disgraceful.

To ask the Scottish Government whether the new HMP Highland will be completed by 2026 without further exceeding the reported current cost overrun of £157 million, which is a 300 per cent increase compared with the original cost. (S6O-03731)

I would love to say that it was a pleasure to listen to a second debate on independence, but it is not, because I learned as a soldier a long time ago that fighting the battle in the same way as it has been fought before will get you the same result.

Lorna Slater said that she wakes up cheerfully every morning. I do, too. I wake up cheerfully because I am alive and part of the union. She wanted to know whether I would campaign for the union. I would campaign for it every day. For 12 years, I was happy to defend it when that was needed.

I remind members of what Barack Obama said:

“If you have to win a campaign by dividing people, you’re not going to be able to govern them”.

Remember that, because the independence campaign was all about dividing people, setting families against one another and setting people across Scotland against one another—[Interruption.] You can sit there and make as much noise as you like, but it was barely a year after the independence referendum—[Interruption.] Would you just—[Interruption.] I will give—[Interruption.] I will give way—[Interruption.]

Thank you, Catherine. I think that the point about the need for better communications came out of the citizens panel that helped us with our deliberations.

We resume our consideration of the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill. I am pleased to welcome from the Scottish Government Gillian Martin, the acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy; Philip Raines, deputy director of the domestic climate change division; Amy Hill, climate change legislation team leader; and Norman Munro, a Scottish Government solicitor.

I am sorry that we kept you waiting slightly, cabinet secretary. That is because evidence from the previous panel of witnesses overran. I think that you want to make some brief opening remarks.