That is very useful. If you could send that information to the clerks when you have it, they will make sure that it circulates to the committee. Mark Ruskell has some questions.

I know—what a waste!

Our next item of business is consideration of a draft statutory instrument, the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2023. The instrument has been laid under the affirmative procedure, which means that the Parliament must approve it before it comes into force.

The main purpose of the instrument is to amend the date for the full implementation of Scotland’s deposit and return scheme to 1 October 2025. Eagle-eyed members who have read the committee papers will have noticed that there was an error at point 1, which talked about “2024”, but the date is 2025.

The minister will move the motion on the instrument under the next agenda item. Before that, we will have an evidence session on the instrument and will have a more general update on the DRS.

I am pleased to welcome Lorna Slater, the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, and, from the Scottish Government, Ailsa Heine, a solicitor; David McPhee, the deputy director of the deposit return scheme; and Haydn Thomas, the head of the deposit return scheme unit. Thank you for joining us. I remind everyone that the officials can speak during this agenda item but not during the next one.

I invite the minister to make a brief opening statement.

I understand that, to an extent, but you could have set a very low level of deposit on cans and plastic bottles, which the UK Government might have accepted. When you were going to introduce the deposit return scheme, you were talking of having stick-on labels for some small producers. You had not even sorted the labelling out, so I am not sure that it is possible to blame everyone else.

Were we too premature in throwing it out? Would it be possible, with a year of fruitful negotiation, to come up with a scheme that allows cans and plastic containers to be recycled through deposit return?

Monica Lennon, you have the next question.

Our next item of business is an evidence session as part of the committee’s stage 1 scrutiny of the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill. The purpose of the session is to hear from a panel of representatives from Scotland’s business sector. Provisions in the bill will have implications for Scottish businesses, including new duties on the reporting of waste, minimum charges for single-use items and restrictions around the disposal of unsold consumer goods.

We are looking forward to the discussion. Sadly, we are one panel member down. Stacey Dingwall, who is the head of policy and external affairs for Scotland at the Federation of Small Businesses, is ill. She could not take part remotely because she has unfortunately lost her voice—a double whammy and we are sorry to miss her. However, we have Cat Hay, who is head of policy for the Food and Drink Federation Scotland; Ewan MacDonald-Russell, who is deputy head of the Scottish Retail Consortium; and Colin Smith, who is chief executive of the Scottish Wholesale Association. Thank you all for joining us.

We will move to questions from committee members and I will start by asking, in very general terms, whether you are concerned that the bill is enabling legislation and does not have a lot of detail in it on what will be implemented. It tells us what can be done, not what will be done. As a parliamentarian, that concerns me. Colin Smith, does it concern you?

I will push you on that. We are running out of time to go out to tender for the contract. I feel that one of the most difficult decisions to make would be to recommend that it is again awarded to CalMac. Islanders are probably thinking, “How can you give it to CalMac, when it has been so bad at delivering what it has been delivering for the last contract period?”

I want to push you on when we are going to get an answer. I would also like to know what key things you will do to reassure islanders that if it is a direct award, you will be right on top of the delivery of the service. The figures that we got from CalMac on its delivery of standards were opaque, to say the least.

Just before we leave the topic of railways, one of the reasons that was given when ScotRail was nationalised was that Abellio was not meeting its public performance measures. However, with fewer trains and less work being done on the railways, the Scottish Government is still failing to meet its targets. What is the reason for that?

So, the bottom-line question is this: will the two issues that we have just discussed cause changes to the islands plan and will there be additions to the plan, as a result?

We are now going to hear from the Minister for Transport on the Scottish Government’s transport priorities for the transport policy—that is quite a mix-up of words. As with the earlier part of the meeting, this will be a wide-ranging session with an eye on the Scottish Government’s next budget and future recommendations that the committee might make on that.

I welcome Fiona Hyslop, the Minister for Transport for the Scottish Government. It is nice to see you at the opposite end of the committee table rather than sitting next to me—that is a new experience for us both. I also welcome Alison Irvine, interim chief executive for Transport Scotland; Bill Reeve, the director of rail for Transport Scotland; and Chris Wilcock, head of ferries branch for Transport Scotland. Thank you for joining us today. We are pleased to welcome you back, minister. I believe that you want to make a brief opening statement.