Meeting of the Parliament 25 September 2024
First, I thank the Presiding Officer for reminding members that I speak on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau. The business motion represents the bureau’s position, not just mine.
The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, unless or until it is changed, requires the Government to introduce a draft climate change plan by 22 November this year to set out policies and proposals for meeting our emissions reduction targets. The Climate Change Committee has given conclusive advice that the 2030 target of 75 per cent emissions reductions that Parliament set in 2019 on a cross-party basis is out of reach. Therefore, we must adjust our target framework before we can introduce a credible climate change plan. To ensure that we are not in breach of legal obligations, we need to ensure that the bill that is before Parliament is enforced by 22 November to make the necessary changes to the law as it stands.
As Parliament is aware, the Scotland Act 1998 provides a four-week period after any bill is passed by the Scottish Parliament for the United Kingdom, the Scottish law officers and the Secretary of State for Scotland to consider that bill. The Presiding Officer cannot present a bill for royal assent until after that period has concluded. The period of time to obtain royal assent after that period is outwith the Government’s control but takes on average about one and a half weeks, which means that there is a period of about five and a half weeks after stage 3 before a bill can receive royal assent.
Although in exceptional circumstances the Government can ask the law officers and the secretary of state to agree to expedite their post-stage 3 considerations and advise the Presiding Officer that they do not intend to take any action to prohibit the Presiding Officer from seeking royal assent, the law officers and the UK Government cannot, of course, be compelled to do so. Therefore, seeking to agree a timetable that does not allow—