This search includes all content on the Scottish Parliament website, except for Votes and Motions. All Official Reports (what has been said in Parliament) and Questions and Answers are available from 1999. You can refine your search by adding and removing filters.
There is over-provision of built estate, but how can the answer be more new build? How many failing businesses cure their problems by building new headquarters?
We have received no apologies, so we will move straight to item 1 on the agenda, which is new petitions. The first petition, PE497, is from James and Pamala McDougall, on the subject of nuisance caused by hedges.
The discussion reminds me of the VAT element. Landlords buy in electricity at the commercial rate with 17.5 per cent VAT applied, but they are allowed to resell it only with 5 per cent applied—the domestic rate.
Perhaps we are aware of those issues in a way that the Justice 1 Committee is not. The idea of buying ourselves another week is to allow members to do a bit more reading on the topic so that, when we submit our comments to the Justice 1 Committee, we will have had a bit of space to think through what our priorities are.
This raises a question that we have considered once before: must the board be stood down before a new board can be elected, or can a statutory instrument be used to make the change in one fell swoop?