I am sorry, Mr Ruskell—I did not quite hear that question.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

Agenda item 5 is consideration of another consent notification for a UK statutory instrument that has not yet been laid.

The Scottish Government proposes to consent to the instrument, which, as the clerk’s paper indicates, relates to the new UK chemicals regulatory regime for persistent organic pollutants.

As discussed under the previous agenda item, a protocol has been agreed between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament for situations in which the Scottish Government proposes to consent to certain types of secondary legislation made by the UK Government as a result of EU exit. The protocol sets out how the Scottish Parliament may scrutinise such decisions. There is a statutory requirement that the Scottish Government’s consent be sought for this proposed instrument.

I refer members to the paper for this item. Again, multiple options are open to the committee on the consent notification. I will not go through them all again—they are exactly the same as those for the consent notification that we have just considered.

If members have no comments, I will move to the substantive question. Is the committee content that the provision set out in the notification be made in the proposed UK statutory instrument??

Members indicated agreement.

We are agreed. We will write to the Scottish Government to that effect. Is the committee content to delegate authority to me to sign off a letter to the Scottish Government, informing it of our decision today??

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 2 is an evidence session on the legislative consent memorandum on the United Kingdom Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill. I refer members to the briefing papers from the clerk and the Scottish Parliament information centre.

The bill?was introduced to the UK Parliament on 11 May 2022. On 27 July, the Scottish Government lodged a legislative consent memorandum on it, which said that the bill touches on devolved legislative or executive competence in three main areas, including on environmental law through the proposed introduction of environmental outcomes reports. Those will be the focus of our scrutiny.

Today, we will hear the views of three witnesses. I welcome Lloyd Austin, convener of the Scottish Environment LINK governance group; Robbie Calvert, policy, practice and research officer at the Royal Town Planning Institute; and David Melhuish, director of the Scottish Property Federation. Thank you all for accepting our invitation. We are delighted to have you here.

We have around 60 minutes for this evidence session. I remind members that I am a qualified surveyor and that I have a planning interest behind me from when I was in private practice.

I do not necessarily have concerns; I may be delighted that the precautionary principle is there, because it overrides a lot of decisions relating to environmental law. I would argue that it is actually a good thing and the fact that it is in UK and Scottish legislation strengthens the position.

I have picked up on three areas. You feel that the word “consult” in clause 121 is not sufficiently strong; you are concerned that there are regulations that you have not seen that could be worse but are not definitely worse; and you are worried that the regression clause—clause 120—is not strong enough. If there were more detail on those areas, would that address your concerns? You could give a yes or no answer, but I suspect that you will not.

Thank you for that, Jackie.

Thank you for taking time to come to the committee—I understand that some of you had to find the time at quite short notice. I appreciate your attendance.

Our third item of business is evidence on a consent notification on the Biocidal Products (Health and Safety) (Amendment) Regulations 2022, which is a forthcoming United Kingdom statutory instrument on which Scottish Government consent to legislate is sought. The Scottish Parliament has a role, subject to a protocol, in the scrutiny of Scottish Government consent to UK secondary legislation in devolved areas arising from European Union exit.

There is a short reporting deadline on this notification, so today we will hear from the Scottish Government on its proposal to consent. We are joined by Màiri McAllan, who is the Minister for Environment and Land Reform, and the Scottish Government officials Dan Merckel, chemicals team leader, and Luigi Pedreschi, solicitor.

We have around 25 minutes for this item. Minister, I believe that you would like to make an opening statement and that you have a slight correction to make regarding the notification.

I think that Dan has already given the answer, which is that all the chemicals sitting within the packet of chemicals looking for authorisation already had an on-label use. As they are already being used, they would not need to be tested and re-evaluated. Is that not what you said, Dan?