Chamber and committees

People should report fly-tipping incidents and share any relevant evidence with their local authority, which, in most cases, leads on investigation and enforcement. The national litter and fly-tipping strategy is clear on the importance of effective reporting and evidence gathering in supporting enforcement action. Through the strategy, we are working with partners including the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Keep Scotland Beautiful to improve the quality of fly-tipping data, strengthen intelligence sharing and support a more co-ordinated approach to tackling fly-tipping and environmental crime. Updated action plans are published annually on the Scottish Government website.

I recognise that, for some people and in many instances, concerns about potentially providing a statement or giving evidence in court may act as a barrier to reporting antisocial behaviour. We want to better understand concerns and, where possible, work with partners to address them, so that people feel able and supported to come forward. There are already routes such as Crimestoppers to provide information anonymously where criminal activity, including large-scale illegal dumping, is suspected. The Scottish Government will continue to work with local authorities, COSLA and other partners to consider ways to remove barriers to reporting fly-tipping and supporting effective enforcement.

I thank Colm Merrick for that question, the content of which very much exercises me, particularly the UK Government putting a motor tax on EV drivers and penalising them, when we should be encouraging the take-up of electric vehicles so that we can further decarbonise transport.

This is particularly important in rural areas, which may not have transport links that meet everyone’s needs. People in rural areas need to use cars so, when they can, they should have the opportunity to purchase an EV. The Scottish Government has invested more than £70 million in public EV charging since 2011 and increasing private sector investment has crowded in as a direct result of that, so that we now have one of the most comprehensive charging networks in the UK.

However, per-mile taxation is damaging not only Scotland’s decarbonisation objectives but those of the whole of the UK, because it costs the average EV driver in the UK £350 per year, with some drivers in Scotland paying more than £50 more, simply because of our geography. I am also unsure how it is going to work, so I have lots of questions. I would like to see it being scrapped and I would like to see EV take-up being incentivised.

The Government is committed to supporting active farming and sustainable food production through direct payments, regardless of choices made elsewhere. The 2026 payment strategy maintains the timings for direct payments and Scottish rural development programme funding, which, over the coming five years, will, per the rural support plan, provide certainty, preparation and investment, ensuring that our farmers and crofters have the confidence to invest and prepare for changes.

The Scottish Parliament voted in favour of calling for the United Kingdom Government to reverse the national insurance increase, acknowledging that that increase will likely result in higher costs, job losses and increased prices.

We need to ensure that our pathway is ambitious, deliverable and central to the Government’s approach. Being ambitious on its own is not good enough. Our pathway has to be fair, deliverable and achievable. We have worked closely with the Climate Change Committee, and its advice has informed our emissions trajectory and the policies that are set out in the climate change plan, with a couple of exceptions. I am meeting the committee’s chair in the next couple of days. The plan is to have a road map for what Heather Anderson is asking me to consider.

One area where we are doing a great deal of work is the decarbonisation of transport, and I will be working closely with my Government colleagues on that. I will be having a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport, who is sitting beside me, on what is happening in the transport area. That represents a huge opportunity for change, and indeed for making businesses more resilient to global shocks that are outwith our control when it comes to fuel prices.

I will not turn my back on one of Scotland’s major innovation opportunities, in CCUS. We have arguably the largest capacity for CCUS under the seabed in the North Sea. We also have a mature project that, frankly, should have been delivered 10 or 12 years ago but has continually had the rug pulled from under it.

I thank Mark Ruskell for his warm wishes. I absolutely want to continue working with him, and I hope that, at the end of today’s ballot, he will be successful in becoming the convener of the committee that, if I have this correct, will scrutinise me.

The climate change plan is an evolving document and we will not rule anything out. We will ensure that it is not a static document that sits on a shelf unchanged. We will have to change it depending on the situation and as we find innovations. We will also ensure that we act when we see disappointing results: a 1 per cent emissions reduction for 2024, for example, is not what it should be. We should accelerate more quickly.

I extend the same words to Mark Ruskell that I did to Claire Baker: I want to work with him and his colleagues to ensure that the climate change plan is delivered and that it is enhanced as we progress, so that we get to net zero by 2045.

I wonder how he will square his—

You cannot intervene on an answer.

I thank Ariane Burgess for her good wishes. I look forward to continuing to work with her on this most important of areas. I know how passionate she is about it, as am I.

We will make sure that we continue with direct payments. We have been able to give payments early to growers, in particular where active farming is happening. Of course, active farming must be sustainable farming, and the agricultural and land management sectors, by virtue of managing our land, have not just the biggest responsibility but the biggest opportunity to assist us in getting to net zero and improving the environment for everyone. They also create hundreds and hundreds of jobs, particularly in rural Scotland, including the area that Ariane Burgess represents.

I welcome Claire Baker to her role, and I look forward to working with her. I very much take to heart what she has said about the will to make progress on the matter.

The answer to her substantive question about how we are going to do that has been laid out in the climate change plan. The climate change plan is, in effect, the road map for all the policies that we will take forward.

I am convening early meetings with my Cabinet colleagues, because the areas that are associated with action to deliver on transport, energy, housing and social policy lie with other cabinet secretaries. We will form a cross-Government group to make sure that we hit the ground running. I will convene a meeting with the relevant cabinet secretaries and their officials in the next couple of days.

I have also reached out to every one of my shadow cabinet secretaries, because I think that Claire Baker’s fundamental point is correct. We have made progress in the 10 years that I have been in the Parliament. We are more than halfway to net zero. I do not agree with the position that those things would have happened anyway. A tremendous amount of work has been done on peatland restoration, which is sequestering carbon and stopping leakage into the atmosphere. A great deal of work has also been done on Government support for electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps and for various other measures to help businesses to reduce their carbon footprint.

I want to work with every individual shadow of mine on our shared goals and ideas, because I do not believe that anyone has a monopoly on good ideas.

The climate change plan was set out in March. However, are there areas in which we can do more? I want to talk to my counterparts across the chamber to work out how we can do that, because it is not just the Government’s challenge but Parliament’s challenge. It is society’s challenge, but it is also Parliament’s challenge. Particularly when we have individuals in the Parliament who do not believe in climate action—we have already heard them in the past three weeks—it is ever more important that those who understand the science and realise the imperative around climate action stick together and get action done.