Meeting of the Parliament 25 September 2024
In ordinary circumstances, I would agree with the fundamental points that Patrick Harvie has made. Initially, it was my expectation that we could have worked with the committee so that we did not get into a situation and circumstances in which we would have to seek to engage with the UK Government. The Government will have to do so now, irrespective of the timescale that we agree this evening. We initially wanted a timescale that would not put us in that place and would have enabled Parliament to have sufficient time between stages 1, 2 and 3 to go through the usual process of consideration, albeit on an expedited basis.