Chamber and committees

Can I just interrupt you there? First, I thank your customer service team, which clearly has a busy and challenging job to do.

The small businesses that we are talking about are heavily invested in their local communities, in their workforces and in securing people’s jobs and growing their businesses; they are also thinking about net zero and sustainability. They are not shy about picking up the phone to or emailing MSPs and asking people to come out. How many times do they have to phone and ask the question before they get an answer? Also, is it right to pass them to SEPA? Is there an opportunity to get SEPA, Circularity Scotland and others involved in the same room, given that the problem seems to be that people are getting passed from pillar to post?

I am sure that you have made a very genuine offer, but, from what you have said, you have a lot of operational stuff to roll out, and I wonder whether every single problem and query having to be channelled to you, as chief executive, to get an answer is a good way to do business. I do not ask that to be cheeky in any way.

If that is where we are at right now and we have gone beyond the original sign-up date, are you feeding that back to ministers and discussing it with the minister, Lorna Slater? You have picked up that there should perhaps be a case for exemption. You are correct that that is not in the regulations right now. Are you feeding that back to the Government?

I will return to the point about those beautiful bottles that can be reused for lamps, candles and so on. I think that we have both spoken to the same business, which is concerned that the bottles have to be returned for recycling—they have to be smashed. Now that you have a bit more knowledge about that, and given that the Parliament will be considering a circular economy bill, do you think that there needs to be more flexibility around the type of situation that we have described?

Thank you, convener, and good morning, panel. It has been quite an interesting session so far. I will probably pick up on Collette Stevenson’s questions about small producers because that is where my interest is today. However, I was quite struck by your comment at the start that we have more than 100 years of relevant experience in front of us today. On the one hand, that is reassuring, but many small producers are still not getting access to the answers that they need, so I am hoping that we can make some progress on that today.

Sticking with small producers, I think that Collette and I have been speaking to the same local businesses, but they are not alone. The example that I have in mind is a small producer who did not sign up before the deadline. They have not signed up yet. They attended one of your in-person roadshows, but they left it feeling very frustrated. It seems that other small producers share these concerns. I think that we all want a more circular economy, but we do not want people going round and round in circles trying to get very basic answers and being passed between Circularity Scotland, SEPA, trading standards and, of course, the minister. The business that I am thinking of said that the minister did not reply to them, but I think that David Harris said that the business that Collette Stevenson described might actually be exempt, because it operates on such a small scale at the moment and it is trying to heavily promote refill and reuse. If it is exempt, who would tell it that, and why has it not been able to get that information so far from Circularity Scotland, SEPA or the Government?

Is 2035 the date that is furthest away, or are there any dates beyond that?

A veil of silence has been lifted today, so I add my voice to those thanking the First Minister for making an apology on behalf of the Scottish Government and indeed on behalf of Scotland. This is a day of mixed emotions. Some people have been name checked already but, as I look round the public gallery, I see that Marion and Jeannot are here, and that Evelyn Robinson has travelled from Australia with her son, who was born in this city in 1970 and was taken from his mother. It is a difficult day for other adult adoptees. I know that Esther, Fiona and Marjorie are here, and many more. There will be people who do not even realise that they, too, have been affected. There are so many survivors.

There have been many good questions already but I want to ask the First Minister whether she agrees that, after today, not just as a Government but as a Parliament, we should continue to work together on the issue to educate ourselves, because it was prejudice and complacency, along with a lack of compassion, that made this happen.

This week, we are celebrating single-parent families in Scotland. When I was speaking to some media representatives today, I said that this happened because women did not have a wedding ring on their finger. We cannot be complacent. There are people who will ask why we are not talking about the 1980s and later dates. We heard earlier today from Lisa about her experience, which happened in 1982, the year after I was born. What can we do to continue to educate the people of Scotland about the issue? There has been a call to record some of this history in the Glasgow Women’s Library. What else can we do to make sure that there is no complacency and that never again can something like this happen in Scotland?

I will come to Tom Quinn next and ask again about specific targets for marine, solar and hydro. I do not know whether you want to answer across the board or just pick out one of those.

I am watching the clock, because the convener caught my eye. We are just about to run out of time.

I have a quick final question. You might not know a lot about this. North Ayrshire Council has told us that it takes a community wealth building approach, and we have heard about its work on solar energy. The Scottish Government has committed to introducing a community wealth building bill. Do you see that having an enabling role? Are there any opportunities there for community energy and local energy?

That is great. Thank you.

I want to return to the draft energy strategy, which I note does not have specific ambitions for marine or solar deployment, although it does recognise the potential role for hydro at small scale, involving local communities, and at a larger scale. Can the panel explain whether it is important to have specific targets? If it is, what should they be? I will start with Emily Rice, because I think that you said that solar is a bit of a footnote in the strategy. I am keen for you to elaborate on that and on the question about targets and how important they are.