Chamber and committees

Sarah Boyack makes an important point. There is already provision in law for environmental impact assessments to be done, which will include detail on biodiversity loss or any other kind of environmental impact from any infrastructure. She helpfully supported my earlier point that it is not just electricity infrastructure for which there has to be an environmental impact assessment; it is any planning decision. Whether it is about something that happens in the sea, underground, overground or in the air, any planning decision has to have environmental impact assessments associated with it. I thank Sarah Boyack for pointing that out.

Amendment 172, which would address the impacts of electricity infrastructure on biodiversity, falls outside the scope of statutory biodiversity targets for the purposes of conservation. The target topic, enhancing environmental conditions for nature, will look at the pressures that inhibit biodiversity from thriving so that nature has the best conditions to recover.

Amendment 185 would add a new and specific reporting requirement in relation to energy choices. That would risk distracting from the purpose and focus of the important reporting requirement, which is to ensure that ministers are being appropriately held to account in meeting our biodiversity targets.

Amendment 193 is particularly unclear. It seems inappropriate for the targets that will be set under the new section 2C(1) to make any provision in relation to infrastructure. The biodiversity targets are intended to be entirely unrelated to any decision making on overhead electricity transmission lines. Infrastructure obviously interacts with biodiversity in a lot of ways, whether that be in the marine environment, underground or above ground. However, by focusing on specific planning and engineering considerations rather than taking a holistic approach to biodiversity, the amendment risks distracting from improving the natural environment as a whole.

Amendment 194 would impose a corresponding obligation on Environmental Standards Scotland to report on whether the requirements that are set out in the new part that would be inserted by Mr Lumsden’s amendment 306 have been met for any target that relates to energy infrastructure. For the same reasons that I gave for amendment 193, I cannot support amendment 194.

I turn to amendments 197, 200, 198 and 199. Section 3 sets out the purposes for which the Scottish ministers may exercise the power to make regulations under section 2. Those purposes are essential to ensure that our environmental assessment frameworks will remain robust, aligned with obligations and adaptable to future needs.

Amendments 198 and 199 seek to extend the purposes in relation to energy infrastructure consenting, and they are linked to amendments 197 and 200.

Amendment 197 seeks to add a specific alternative test as a duty at an inappropriate stage and it is duplicative of existing environmental impact assessment requirements. That relates to the point that Sarah Boyack has just highlighted with me. Furthermore, amendments 197 and 200 seek to introduce a new requirement for the Scottish ministers to publish additional information in relation to electricity infrastructure assessments and to show proof of compliance before granting consent.

Amendment 197, once again, includes reserved matters over which the Scottish ministers do not have legislative competence but, instead, exercise executively devolved functions. It remains unclear whether the consent that is referenced in Mr Lumsden’s amendments refers to ministers’ approval of regulations under part 2 of the bill or to consent under the Electricity Act 1989 relating to the Scottish ministers’ devolved functions. That ambiguity highlights the complexity of the electricity infrastructure regime. Any changes to that intricate regime, where there is a mix of reserved and devolved functions, must be carefully considered by both Parliaments, rather than being introduced in a bill relating to biodiversity. There are reserved implications that have not been considered.

It should also be noted that the relevant regulations, including the Electricity Act 1989 and the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017, are outwith the scope of part 2 as they are not relevant environmental impact assessment regulations for the purposes of section 4. Furthermore, they relate to reserved matters and they cannot be amended by the bill. We only have the power—through the recent Scotland Act 1998 (Transfer of Functions to the Scottish Ministers etc) Order 2025—to amend the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 in making regulations for environmental outcomes reports. That is a fact that anyone who is involved in energy policy would know.

The habitats regulations that apply to the applications and electricity infrastructure that are covered by amendments 197 to 200—specifically, the UK-level Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017—also relate to reserved matters and they are not within the scope of part 2 of the bill. They cannot be subject to the powers in part 2, as that would be outside legislative competence. The purpose of part 2 is not to amend the complex legal regime that underpins the Scottish ministers’ consenting functions in relation to energy generation and associated infrastructure, which are largely underpinned by UK Government laws and regulations.

Amendment 305 seeks to require the Scottish ministers to prepare an alternative assessments code for electricity infrastructure, which would set out how underground and subsea alternatives to overhead transmission lines and related above-ground infrastructure are to be assessed against cost, biodiversity net impact, resilience and landscape.

Amendment 306 seeks to introduce community consent requirements and comprehensive assessment obligations for major energy infrastructure, alongside enhanced safety measures for battery storage and a statutory compensation fund for affected communities.

As I have noted, the legislative framework that covers energy infrastructure is complex, with a mixture of UK Government and Scottish Government legislation. Stage 2 of the bill is not the right place to address those matters and the amendments are therefore not competent. Notably, the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity are reserved matters to the UK Government and cannot be amended by this bill or, indeed, any other bill that is laid in the Scottish Parliament.

Amendment 205 seeks to amend section 5, which modifies the aims of national parks. The effects of that amendment would be to add an additional aim of national parks for

“prohibiting ... new overhead lines or large-scale battery ... storage systems in ... or adjacent to, a National Park, unless underground or sub-sea installation is not ... feasible”

in the devolved context. The generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity are reserved matters to the UK Government and cannot be amended by this or any other bill in the Scottish Parliament. We would need UK legislation or for those powers to be wholly devolved to the Scottish Parliament in order to make the provision that amendment 205 proposes.

Amendment 210 seeks to amend sections 11 and 12 of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, which set out the procedure for developing national park plans. The amendment appears to have the intention of giving elements of national park plans statutory weight by requiring planning authorities to refuse permission for overhead lines in areas designated by those plans as no-go corridors,

“unless there is an exceptional justification for doing so.”

As I have said in relation to other amendments, the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity are reserved matters to the UK Government and cannot be amended by this or any other bill in the Scottish Parliament.

That question is probably best put to Mr Fairlie. I imagine that he will be able to furnish Mr Carson with a range of measures that he has taken to allow the livestock sector to thrive.

Decisions on livestock numbers are for individual farm businesses to make, driven by a range of factors, including market returns. The biggest threat to the sector comes from reserved policy areas such as free trade deals, which expose our Scottish livestock sector to unfair competition. It is vital that any targets that are introduced are workable and have been subject to engagement and consultation to ensure that there are no unintended consequences, including for the agricultural sector and our wider economy. I appreciate the sentiment behind Tim Eagle’s amendment 312 and his reasons for lodging it, but I would ask him not to move it.

That is not how these things work—I had meetings with Sarah Boyack ahead of stage 2. I apologise to Mercedes Villalba and will look into why she was not offered an earlier meeting, because meeting members is very important to me. Anyone who knows me will know that, since becoming a minister in this Government, I have made every effort to meet members who want to get in touch with me and talk about their amendments. If members ask to meet me, I do not give any preference to members of my own party. I absolutely would have made time to discuss these amendments with Mercedes Villalba, and I am sorry that that did not happen in this case. After this meeting, I will find out why that did not happen, and I will meet her ahead of stage 3.

I turn to amendments 42, 43 and 44, which seek to add something to the bill that is already there. Targets relating to the restoration of natural processes, the condition of marine and terrestrial ecosystems and the status of keystone species can all be set under the target topics that are already listed in the bill. Amendment 43 refers to

“the condition of marine and terrestrial ecosystems”,

which can adequately be captured in the broad and high-level definition of the target topic of

“the condition or extent of any habitat”.

Amendment 44 refers to

“the status of keystone species”,

which can adequately be captured in the broad and high-level definition of the target topic of

“the status of threatened species”.

Amendment 42 refers to

“the restoration of natural processes”,

which can adequately be captured in the broad and high-level definition of the target topic of enhancing

“environmental conditions for nature regeneration”.

Amendments 42, 43 and 44 are therefore unnecessary, so I ask members not to support them, as there is no need to do so.

On amendment 22, the target topics in the bill have been carefully selected through a robust, science-led approach and on the basis of advice from the biodiversity programme advisory group and NatureScot. The target topics included in the bill are meant to be wide and overarching and, as I have said, to allow a variety of targets to be set under each topic. We already have a target topic that will help to support the ecosystem connectivity for which amendment 22 seeks to provide.

We are not waiting for targets to be in place to take action. Connectivity is being addressed through existing commitments, such as nature networks and national planning framework 4. Although ecological connectivity was considered, it was ranked as a low priority due to the limited quality and robustness of the available indicators. However, it sits under the three broad topics.

Amendment 34 seeks to add something to the bill that is already there. The first target topic is

“the condition or extent of any habitat”.

I reassure Ms Boyack that targets relating to the condition of designated natural features on protected sites and marine protected sites can be set under the first target topic. The programme advisory group will explore that as part of its four-step process of setting quantifiable targets.

As the minister with responsibility for biodiversity, I am absolutely aware of the impact of squirrel pox and of the pressure caused by the grey squirrel, which is an invasive non-native species that was introduced to this country and is having an effect on red squirrels. I come from a rural area where a great deal of work has been done to reduce the grey squirrel population, and I pay particular tribute to the work done at Haddo house, where there is a fantastic programme. There are red squirrels in abundance in Aberdeen as a result of that work.

I do not need to be told that I have no awareness of the issue. I am not diminishing the concerns of the red squirrel group that Ms Hamilton refers to and would be happy to meet with it. I am not fixed in my views about what we can do to protect the red squirrel; I am merely pointing out that what Rachael Hamilton is proposing would take away funding that could otherwise be used for direct action that actually yields results.

Our current strategies are evidence based and adaptive. Locking the proposed duties into legislation would add a bureaucratic layer that does not have to be there, because we can, on an on-going basis, look at new strategies as science and techniques develop to protect our red squirrel species. As such, I firmly believe that our focus should remain on strengthening existing programmes that are proven to be effective—I mentioned one in my area—and will have a material effect on red squirrel conservation. For those reasons, I encourage members to oppose amendments 291 to 293.

I will speak first to my amendment 53 and then turn to other members’ amendments in the group.

Amendment 53 relates to the duty in part 1 of the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 that requires every public body in Scotland to prepare and publish a biodiversity report every three years. The amendment will allow us to make an important change that will simplify the approach to biodiversity reporting and make it more meaningful. The amendment will insert a power into part 1 of the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 to allow Scottish ministers to specify the relevant public bodies that the reporting duty applies to.??Those changes will be introduced by secondary legislation, and I confirm that the Government intends the changes to be subject to public consultation.

The amendment will align the biodiversity reporting requirements more closely to those in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 by providing greater efficiency and a more streamlined process. It will also ensure that public bodies whose remit is largely unrelated to environmental matters or that do not manage land and therefore cannot contribute to the biodiversity duty in any substantive way, or can make only a minimal contribution, can be excluded from the duty to report. That could include some advisory non-departmental public bodies such as the national smart ticketing advisory board or parliamentary commissioners such as the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner.

The amendment will reduce unnecessary administrative burdens and, more importantly, will allow us to concentrate our efforts where they can have the greatest impact in the areas in which our biodiversity duty can truly make a difference. I therefore encourage members to support amendment 53.

Beatrice Wishart’s amendment 165 aims to connect the fulfilment of the public sector biodiversity duty with our biodiversity strategy and targets. I can see the merit in the approach that Ms Wishart proposes, but I have concerns about ensuring that there are no unintended consequences for the ability of public bodies or office-holders to carry out their core functions. I therefore ask Ms Wishart not to press amendment 165 at this stage and to work with me ahead of stage 3 on a revised version of her amendment. If Ms Wishart presses amendment 165, I ask members not to support it, but I am willing to work with her ahead of stage 3.

I will speak to amendments 12, 54, 55 and 56 collectively. I acknowledge the concerns that stakeholders and the committee have expressed about invasive non-native species. I am aware that INNS are one of the key drivers of biodiversity loss, as identified by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, and ambitious targets are set out in the global biodiversity framework to tackle that. I am also mindful of the concerns that have been expressed about the species that have been exempted from the provisions in section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Stakeholders have highlighted the potential impacts of the common pheasant and red-legged partridge on our native biodiversity, as well as the risks that those species pose in relation to the spread of avian influenza. Stakeholders have also spoken about the effects of the self-seeding of Sitka spruce on sensitive habitats such as peat bog.

Given those concerns, I absolutely understand why Mercedes Villalba has lodged her set of amendments. I agree entirely that having in place a robust process to manage the impacts of any non-native species that are exempted from section 14(1) and (2) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 makes sense. However, we must ensure that such a process is aligned fully with current legislation, is workable in practice and does not cause harm to Scotland’s rural economy.

I will.

Douglas Lumsden has lodged a number of amendments for the bill that relate to electricity infrastructure, as he did during stages 2 and 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, which was recently taken through the Parliament. Many of his amendments—if not all of them—have the same fundamental issues. Throughout them all, Douglas Lumsden is trying to shoehorn in a set of issues that are wholly outside the purpose of the bill. The Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill is about introducing a framework for biodiversity targets, together with other measures that will enable us to support the delivery of Scottish Government biodiversity goals. The amendments that Douglas Lumsden has lodged have not been raised with me in the context of this bill, nor have the issues been considered by the committee.

Many of the amendments also lack legislative competence. I must make the committee aware that a substantial number of the issues connected to energy infrastructure that the amendments cover are reserved to the UK Parliament. Alasdair Allan has just pointed to the Electricity Act 1989, which is one piece of legislation that the amendments would conflict with. The powers to do the things that Douglas Lumsden is asking for in a great deal of the amendments would lie in Scotland only if all energy powers were devolved to the Scottish Parliament and Government or if Scotland was a nation state with all the powers of one. There are further concerns as to whether the amendments conflict with existing statutory obligations under the Electricity Act 1989 and questions of consistency with UK and Scottish Government energy policies.

The legislative framework that covers energy infrastructure is complex and largely reserved to the UK Government. Stage 2 of the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill is designed to improve biodiversity, so it is simply not the right place to address energy infrastructure matters. I will go through each of the amendments in turn to address the issues.

I will finish my point first. Having heard what has been said in today’s discussion, we will give careful consideration to whether further research is needed to address the evidence gaps. Although I cannot support the amendment at this stage, I am committed to exploring whether additional research needs to be undertaken—I suggest that it does—in order to strengthen our understanding and to support informed discussion on sustainable game bird management in Scotland in the future.

I have given the best answer that I possibly can. Rachael Hamilton will appreciate that, in order to keep the mechanics of the committee meeting going, I have opted to move amendment 35 on behalf of Mr Fairlie, so that I can get through all the amendments in the interests of time. Mr Fairlie will watch the meeting and read the Official Report, and he will note those points.