Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 22 December 2020
There will be no constraints on organisations of any sort in that regard. Indeed, when the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform addresses the role of ESS later in the process, I am sure that she will provide information and reassurance to the member. However, I would never dare to trespass on her area of responsibility. I am not going to start doing that now, so, I will allow her to respond to that point.
To return to my area of responsibility, amendment 7 covers matters that members feel strongly about; members do not feel so strongly about other matters. The amendment does not preclude anyone or any organisation from having a say.
Amendments 22 and 23, which provide that we must also report on how we are meeting the purpose in section 1(1), will strengthen the bill.
I am sorry but, having tried to please Mr Ruskell, I now going to have to disappoint him. If the Parliament supports these amendments, amendment 19, in the name of Mark Ruskell, which we will come to later when we debate group 5, will not be necessary, given that the aim of that amendment will have been met.
I am obliged to Angela Constance for the time that she has afforded to getting this right over the past few weeks. I am very pleased that she is returning to Government. I have some experience of working with her and I know how talented she is. I am quite certain that the work that she has done on the bill will also be lasting testimony to the work that she has done when not in Government.
I ask the Parliament to support amendments 7, 22, 23 and 30. I ask the Conservatives to think of the will of the people of Scotland, not of their own selfish party interests.