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The importance of buses in tackling some of the challenges that we face in getting folk to move to public transport is often underestimated. After all, 80 per cent of public transport journeys are by bus, and buses play a huge role in getting folk out. That said, I recognise the challenges that communities face; indeed, I suspect that we all have the same challenges in our communities with regard to the quality of bus services, services being withdrawn and so on. I certainly have those challenges in my own constituency.

We want our bus services to be sustainable. One of the provisions in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, which the convener will be very familiar with, was a suite of options for local authorities to play a more effective regulatory role in managing and delivering bus services, whether that be through bus improvement partnerships, running bus services on their own or a franchise model. I sense that a number of local authorities are looking at franchises, which give them much more direct control over specifying the services that will be delivered within their communities.

I want buses to play an important part in the public transport offer in urban and rural areas, but I recognise the challenges in that respect. As I have said, though, there are now regulatory provisions that will allow local authorities to start looking at the models that might work best for them in delivering bus services in their area and which will be more reflective of what the local community is looking for as well as the council’s expectations for those communities. We still have some work to complete on the statutory guidance that will go alongside that, but we hope to do that this year.

Potentially. I would just point out that what works in Edinburgh will not necessarily work in west Stirlingshire, and a community bus model for somewhere like west Stirlingshire might look very different from what you might want to provide in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen or Dundee. However, the community bus fund could support some of the work on that.

Anne Martin might want to say a bit more about the operation of the community bus fund but I have to say that I do not want it to be used for only this purpose and no other purpose beyond this particular model. There will be different models, and different approaches will work in different areas.

Are you referring to the idea of community asset transfer from local authorities to communities and how that fits into the circular economy process and how we make sure that investments made in asset transfers are consistent with the circular economy approach?

I cannot profess to be an expert on EPCs from a technical point of view. I know that we require them for a range of matters. For example, for social housing landlords, letting properties and at the time of sale of properties, EPCs must be completed. I am afraid that I will have to take some technical advice on whether they are the most effective technical way to provide that assessment to an individual household. I am not particularly versed in that.

We have seen recovery in real patronage, although not to the levels that we want. That has been affected by industrial action. I do not know whether Anne Martin can say a bit more about the process of the fair fares review. I am not entirely sure exactly what has happened to that petition but drawing it up into the fair fares review would seem to be the most appropriate way to deal with it. Anne Martin may be able to say a bit more about how we take forward the fair fares review and what its timescale is.

Yes, there are a couple of ways in which we have tried to address some of that. Over the course of the last two years, we have been developing ways of using the Scottish Futures Trust’s expertise and skills in helping to pull together projects and engaging with the private sector. We have taken some of that forward for aspects such as electric vehicle charging points and fleet replacement for local government, trying to help to pull some of that together. The Scottish Futures Trust has also been looking at where there is further work that it can take forward with COSLA to help to drive up some of the expertise that it can bring to local government and to support it in meeting some of those challenges.

We can better utilise some of the resources that we have already to help to support our colleagues in local government, but I think that there is a genuine issue there about what we can do to help to upskill some of our public sector workers.

Some of the progress that we wanted to make during last year was not possible. We are looking to do that as part of a whole range of other requirements. For example, more issues arose from ScotWind than had been originally expected, which meant that additional resources had to be deployed from Marine Scotland to deal with that. It is clear that highly protected marine areas will be one of the key aspects of protecting our marine environment, which has an important part to play in tackling climate change and biodiversity loss. I hope that the work that could not be taken forward last year can be taken forward in the coming year.

I want to come back to your point about the marine plan and to offer you some reassurance. When we were progressing our sectoral marine plan for offshore wind energy—that piece of work, which took place over a two-year period, predates my current ministerial role—there was extensive engagement with fishing communities and stakeholders. I hope that, given our track record in taking forward that plan, fishing communities can be reassured that we will look to undertake a similar level of engagement with them in the process.

As I said, the work that we had hoped and planned to take forward last year will be done in the coming year as we progress our work on highly protected marine areas.

We will be taking forward a piece of work to look at how we can better manage where scarcity issues arise. We have the framework in place, but we will consider whether there are ways that we can better manage that.

One of the issues that we want to look at is whether abstractors could be more efficient in their use of abstraction from river basins. I will give an example. A soft fruit business will probably have a trickle system, whereas a vegetable business will need a much greater quantity of water. The type of soil might require that they do that to a routine. I might be wrong, but I think that the volumes that they bring works to a cycle.

Soft fruit operators are much more efficient in how they use water abstraction than some other operators are. One of the areas that SEPA wants to look at is whether there are ways in which we could become much more efficient, including whether there is a better way in which we could manage the abstraction process when levels start to reduce to a slightly lower level.

On the transferring of water, I am not sure about the technical aspects of that or about whether SEPA would have to consider issues around the environmental impact of that. We are taking forward working to ensure that, when levels drop to certain levels, we are getting greater efficiency from abstraction and looking to minimise the amount that abstractors have to take at particular points.

You might be aware that I visited Montrose last year when we were publishing our coastal erosion plan. You cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach. We now have much better data and understanding of where coastal erosion is taking place in Scotland. As part of the plan, we published a map of coastal erosion, so that we know where the particular challenges are. Montrose is a clear example of that. Some of the measures that have been put in there previously have had a positive impact; some have not been so positive.

You cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach in tackling coastal erosion. It must be based on what the local circumstances are and what the local environment is like. Some of the work around the coastal erosion planning was to make sure that we were taking a bespoke approach to how we meet some of those challenges.

Good morning and thank you for your invitation to the committee today.

This inquiry has been invaluable in exploring the complex nature of the decarbonisation challenge across all 32 of Scotland’s local authorities, and I am very grateful for the evidence that has been provided to the committee from a range of stakeholders over the course of recent months. This is also the second day of Scotland’s climate week 2022, which is an annual initiative to celebrate Scotland’s action and the progress that we are making in the climate emergency. I want to start by acknowledging the vital role of local government in the transition to net zero and the significant progress that councils have already made in moving towards achieving net zero.

I am encouraged to see that end-user emissions fell significantly across all Scottish local authorities between 2005 and 2020, with an overall drop of some 10.6 per cent between 2019 and 2020. Two Scottish local authorities exhibited the largest reductions in emissions among all United Kingdom local authorities between those years. West Dunbartonshire Council showed a 28 per cent reduction and Highland Council a reduction of some 24 per cent.

While good progress has been made to date, I recognise that there is still a very long way to go. Throughout the inquiry, you have heard about the interlinked role that local government has with cross-sectoral partners and the Scottish Government in driving forward our journey to becoming a net zero nation. All the challenges that have been highlighted during the inquiry are made all the more acute during the present cost crisis. Our priorities remain, however, and you can be assured that the Scottish Government is absolutely committed to being a steadfast partner with local government in tackling the global climate emergency.

In recognising the capacity challenges of getting projects off the ground, the Scottish Government is working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to explore additional support to help local authorities develop their pipeline of low carbon projects. Later this year we will set out our energy strategy and just transition plan, which will provide a road map for the energy sector’s role in achieving our emissions reduction targets and securing a net zero energy system for Scotland. We have also allocated £194 million this year to help to reduce energy bills and climate emissions through our warmer homes Scotland area-based schemes and Home Energy Scotland.

Those are just a few of the key examples of how we are working with local government to address the crucial issues raised throughout the inquiry. However, as you know, we must work together to do more to meet our climate targets and avert further irreversible damage. I am happy to respond to any questions that the committee may have.