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I was waiting to be unmuted—thank you, convener.

Good morning, cabinet secretary, and welcome to the committee in your new role. You mentioned the work programme, which I understand has to be approved by Scottish ministers. Can you give us a flavour of what you expect to be in the work programme? I think that the board meets about six times a year, but I would like to get an idea of its capacity.

I have another wee question. Out of interest, did the National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board have any input to the fair fares review, or was it consulted as part of that?

That is helpful. Before I move on to talk about the climate change plan, I want to understand the baseline and where we have come from. It appears that we did not have a permanent DG for net zero until January 2023, I believe. Not only was there a lack of progress, there was no workforce plan until sometime last year. We hear a lot of witnesses at this committee, and workforce planning and skills are big among the themes that come to us.

Given what you said, Auditor General, about the need for tackling climate change to be a priority for Government, and given that the former First Minister declared climate change an emergency, does it seem a bit strange that there was no permanent director general for net zero and no workforce plan until a date in 2023?

That is all helpful. You have touched on all the main points that were part of the committee’s net zero inquiry, including the collaboration that is required with public and private sector partners.

I just want to understand how significant the delays and gaps have been. We want to understand what has contributed to the delay of the drafting of the climate change plan. We have looked at what the Government has been doing in the past wee while—how it has set things up and organised itself. You have made some strong conclusions in your report, and given some recommendations that the Government is accepting.

From your assessment of how the Government has been operating to deliver climate change policy, how much of what you have said in your report explains the climate change plan delay? Can you give us a feel for what has contributed to it?

Earlier, you mentioned that risk management was one of the areas that you had examined. Did the Scottish Government recognise that there could be a risk of delay to the draft climate change plan?

I want to ask about the Scottish climate intelligence service, which our committee recommended, because I believe that it is starting to come into effect. We have spent a lot of time today looking at the Scottish Government’s role and the need for good governance and leadership. What more could and should the Scottish Government do to support local government to meet the collective ambitions to deliver on our net zero and climate obligations?

It would be helpful for me to get a better understanding of where the balance of responsibility should lie between the roles of the Scottish Government, local government and all the other partners in between.

The point about confidence is really well made. However, to build confidence, we have to build certainty and, right now, a lot of people feel very uncertain about the policy direction.

I know that the convener will come in on heat in buildings, so I will leave that alone for now.

Perhaps Rebecca Seidel could return to the issue of the Scottish climate intelligence service. We had a recent update from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to say that the service is now up and running. Could you shed more light on that?

It has been a really good session. Thank you, minister, for your responses. I will support the motion, but I have a couple of points to make that I hope will be kept in mind.

We need to ensure that some flexibility is built in, particularly around the young persons travel scheme, because there are challenges not just in Central Scotland but across the country around school transport. It is about making sure that different systems can work together.

I am reassured to hear about the engagement with bus operators and with business, but I reiterate the point about the wider engagement that is needed with our communities. Those who already use the bus and those who want to use the bus face many barriers. We have talked before in the committee about bus deserts, which are areas across Scotland where people just cannot get a bus any longer, and that is a worry.

I appreciate the commitments that the minister has made today, particularly on engagement with ���˿��� such as me who have challenges in our areas at the moment. I will support the motion.

I want to briefly touch on the proposed human rights bill, because there are obviously high expectations around the right to a healthy environment. I was not able to be here in January for the session on environmental governance, but I looked at the Official Report and noted that Lloyd Austin, on behalf of Scottish Environment LINK, said that

“there is a risk that we will have a human right to a healthy environment that is a human right on paper and is not an effective and enforceable one.”

He went on to talk about the link between the governance debate and the human rights bill and said that

“in order to make the human rights bill effective, the governance questions need to be answered.”—[Official Report, Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, 16 January 2024; c 42.]

It is quite frustrating that what we have heard today and from others is that the Scottish Government is perhaps not being serious enough about the issue.

We will leave the Wikipedia issue for others to investigate. I know that my Wikipedia page is not accurate—I do not know how it can be fixed—because I am a planner, not a surveyor. That has been in there for a couple of years, and I cannot seem to get it sorted out.

How can the Government demonstrate that it is serious about the issue? What is the timeline for getting this right? The human rights bill is coming to the Parliament and, with regard to the compliance committee, there is a deadline of later this year to demonstrate what the Government is going to do. Is this time critical?

Welcome, minister, and congratulations on your appointment.

So, that is the procedure. What are the likely consequences? Could they involve a bus operator saying that it is no longer viable to provide a certain route or service? Is that what we are talking about?