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We will do what we can on that.

That is premature. The Scottish Government has been following, and continues to follow, the agreed process for excluding the DRS regulations from the internal market act.

Euan Page is the expert on that issue, so I will give you what I know on it and then he can add some detail.

Whether there is an exclusion is not at the whim of the UK Government. The exclusions from the internal market act are agreed under common frameworks. The frameworks are an agreed process by which the devolved Administrations in the UK protect their powers in respect of devolved matters. The resources and waste framework is there to protect the Scottish Government’s ability to legislate in devolved areas. Under that framework, we have put together the evidence and the case that the matter that we are considering—our deposit return scheme—is fully a devolved matter, which it is. It clearly is a fully devolved matter, and we have presented that evidence through the agreed process to the UK Government. Those are the stages that we have gone through to get an exclusion.

Euan Page will be able to add much more detail.

The two things—the climate and nature emergencies—have now been incorporated and are being considered together, and there is a variety of forums in which that work is happening. There is, for example, the sub-committee on the climate emergency, which is meeting this morning, unfortunately—obviously, I am here and not there—and there is also the First Minister’s environmental council, which is another good forum that is attended not only by ministers but by experts from the field.

I do not have any further information on the timeframe. I am not sure whether we can commit to a timeframe, but I will ask my officials to confirm.

Spatial planning, both terrestrial and marine, is about balancing competing interests so that we have a thriving economy and thriving nature alongside it. It is clear that, in the past, the balance between competing interests has been wrong, to the serious detriment of our natural environment. Our strategy is clear that our high-level goals of being nature positive by 2030 and substantially restoring nature by 2045 will require that whole-of-society approach.

As regards spatial planning in the marine space, Scotland’s national marine plan provides the guiding framework for decision making in the sustainable management of marine activities and resources in Scotland’s waters. I might ask Lisa McCann and Matthew Bird to provide more detail on spatial planning in both those spaces.

I agree that we await with interest the results of the review. We will consider the panel’s recommendations carefully and will share those and our response with the committee in due course.

The strategy will be finalised first and the delivery plan will come after it. Matthew Bird might have timelines for that.

The member is quite right. Globally, there seems to be—and has been for a long time—a good understanding of the climate crisis with regard to carbon emissions and reaching net zero, but people might have been slower to grasp that the nature crisis goes hand in hand with that and, indeed, is part of how we are going to tackle it. The Scottish Government has made some really good progress in understanding how biodiversity and natural capital fit in across the piece.

Indeed, you can see that not only in the things that I have outlined already with regard to the national strategy for economic transformation, our national planning framework and the vision for Scottish agriculture but in our circular economy bill and the other work that we are doing in that respect. Of course, much of that is the answer to the how question, but what if your problem is the plastics in your oceans? Last week, I met a stakeholder who said that they had evidence that the otter kits in the Water of Leith consume plastics with their first ever meal, because the food has plastic in it. If that is your problem, your solution is to take that plastic waste out of the environment and make things more circular.

In everything that we are doing, from the deposit return scheme right through to our national planning framework, we are considering biodiversity, and I am really pleased that we are taking those steps. I think that we are going in the right direction but, as minister for biodiversity, I will always say that we can do more.

Yes, absolutely. Our land is such a mosaic that there is not one solution that would be suitable everywhere. Cairngorms Connect is a very successful project, but it is only one project. Of course, private land is owned for many uses, including farming, forestry and all the businesses that we have in Scotland, which is why we need to look at solutions across the piece.

We are looking at how agriculture subsidies can be reformed to support agriculture. We are looking at minor adjustments to grouse moor legislation to ensure that that land is managed well. We are looking at how we can improve public transport. We are looking at all the pieces across the board. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for managing land. It is about ensuring that each individual farmer, crofter and land manager has the tools available to them, so that they know how to apply for the right grants and support in order that they can manage their land in the way that is right for it.

Landowners know what they need and what to do, so I see our role as facilitating and signposting people by saying, for example, “Here’s the nature restoration fund. Here’s how you get the agricultural subsidies that will allow you to do what you need to do. Here’s how you apply for forestry grant schemes.” All those things together incentivise land use for biodiversity. They also mean that land managers have those choices, so they can look at their land and decide what is best for them and what will work for them.

Biodiversity colleagues are feeding in to that process. The process of agricultural reform is on-going and addressing biodiversity is one part of it. We are feeding in to that, and officials and NGOs in that area are feeding in to that process, but, of course, other stakeholders in that space, such as farming stakeholders, are working together as part of the on-going process to define what that 50 per cent is and how that will work for farmers.