Meeting of the Parliament 05 February 2026 [Draft]
We have reached the crunch time of our parliamentary session, when bills such as the one that we are debating simply do not have the time and space to be debated properly and implemented correctly.
I pay tribute to the member in charge for her tireless work in the area. I have enjoyed the conversations that we have had in and outwith committee, so I thank Monica Lennon for that.
Many people in the north-east will pin their hopes on the bill when they see the environmental damage planned by companies such as Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks. I thought that the bill would stop that damage and that I would vote for the bill. Such projects cause damage on a huge scale. However, the more evidence I heard, the more I came to the conclusion that the bill would not prevent them. On the example of substations, who would be liable? Who would be responsible? Would it be companies such as SSEN or, if they had planning permission, would it be the planning authority? Would it be the councillors who granted the planning permission? Would it be the Scottish Government, which set the planning framework? I do not feel that those questions were answered.
At committee, we wrestled with the question of permitted actions, and I do not think that we had time to get to the bottom of it. The committee’s report on the bill raises the issue of the clarity of definitions of key terms in the bill. Terms such as “widespread” and “long-term” are insufficiently robust. The committee also felt that the approach to those who would be liable for ecocide was too narrow, and there were concerns about incompatibility with the ECHR.
As a member of the committee and having heard all the evidence, I agree that the bill is not in a place whereby we can take it beyond stage 1. Laws that we already have in place could be amended to create an ecocide offence. For example, amending section 40 of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 would work better. The fact that we are a Parliament that can make new laws does not mean that we should necessarily pass new legislation. As parliamentarians, we have the important tasks of keeping our legislation and laws up to date and relevant while keeping things relatively simple.
I am genuinely surprised that the Government, having read the committee’s report, has chosen to ignore it and support the bill. If the bill is agreed to at stage 1 today, we will, as a committee, have to take more evidence on it. Significant amendments will be required, and we have only 21 sitting days of the current session left.