Meeting of the Parliament 17 September 2025
That is exactly what I want. It is important to set this out as an issue because, at the moment, the Scottish National Party minister will be going ahead with something that does not meet any of the conditions that he set.
The summit will not be independently chaired; it will be chaired by the minister for a short period, then he will be jumping into his ministerial car and heading down the road again. It will not be held at a neutral venue; it will be held at the headquarters of NatureScot, which has been the biggest blocker throughout the whole process, and it will not be made open to the public. Nairn and Inverness’s business improvement districts were involved in trying to set the summit up, and they are now considering whether they should even go to it.
In the business motion, I want to see the Scottish Government postpone the Tuesday summit, make a statement to the Parliament next week on its postponement, and set out what it will do to make the summit truly open and reflective. It must allow members of the public to give their views directly to the minister, so that he does not sit behind a closed door in NatureScot’s headquarters and listen only to people with whom he agrees or who agree with him, but that he instead listens to the public.