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Are you saying that you feel confident about the 2030 interim targets and the 2045 emission reduction targets?

It is okay—I am sure that you will give me all the time back anyway, convener.

Others may want to ask about the use of reserves, because there is a concern out there that reserves are being raided. I know that we have Alison Irvine from Transport Scotland here, but we have had representations from Strathclyde Partnership for Transport about the expectations on its reserves. I believe that it has set out in writing to the committee that the reserves that it holds are already allocated for infrastructure upgrading and other safety-critical projects, and others may want to come on to that.

I have a few questions to ask. We would welcome detail on Scottish Forestry’s reserves at a time when it is approving a record number of schemes for woodland creation, but it looks like there is a big budget cut, which is obviously a bit jarring.

I want to go back to confidence levels. How confident are you that the Scottish Government will be able to grow investment in low-carbon infrastructure to the £5 billion to £6 billion annually that the UK Climate Change Committee suggests will be required by the end of this decade? I will come to you first, Deputy First Minister.

Convener, I know that there are a lot of questions. We have not heard from Mr Gray, but I am happy to hand back to you and maybe come back in later, if that is okay.

Good morning to the cabinet secretaries and to all others on the panel. Thank you for your opening statements. You have set out the challenges and pressures, both in a global context and on more domestic issues. Deputy First Minister, how confident and certain are you that the spending decisions in the 2024-25 budget set a course for meeting the interim 2030 emissions reduction targets for Scotland?

It would be worrying if we saw a further reduction in the planning headcount.

I note briefly that we welcome the fact that, previously at this committee, the Scottish Government committed to widening access to the planning profession through the introduction of a planning apprenticeship. We have seen that work in England.

The other thing that has been done in England is that, last year, a £5,000 bursary was brought in to encourage people to enter the planning profession through the master’s degree route. We know that, in Scotland, it is getting harder to find an entry point into planning as an undergraduate. That bursary was part of the levelling-up scheme. You talked about putting a saltire in the ground. Is anything coming forward that will not just signal the sentiment that planning is a worthwhile profession but will provide incentives to ensure that we have a pipeline of planners to do the work that you are so committed to?

I will give just one example. The Government has important targets on native woodland creation. However, it looks as though it is cutting £33.6 million to Scottish Forestry, in addition to a 41 per cent cut to funding for woodland creation schemes. When it comes to making the right impact, is that decision justified, or do you have any concerns?

Okay. However, it looks like a lot of the ScotWind auction money has been drawn down already. Some people have raised concerns that Scotland’s sea bed was sold off too cheaply in the first place; they now feel that we are getting the worst of both worlds because the investment that was supposed to go into tackling the climate and nature emergency looks like it has just been absorbed into general spending. Can you guarantee that moneys that are raised by ScotWind’s future auctions will be used for the intended purpose—that of the original pledge that was made to tackle the twin climate and biodiversity crises?

I am talking about the money that came in through the options for the ScotWind leasing.

That is very helpful.

I will go back to Ben Macpherson’s important question about resource for our planning authorities, given that it is imperative that we speed up consenting for new energy projects and that the planning profession is important for growing the wellbeing economy and achieving the just transition that we all want for workers and communities.

I declare an interest in that I am a former member of the Royal Town Planning Institute Scotland. I am worried by recent data from RTPI Scotland. What the cabinet secretary set out in relation to what the budget might be able to do to address the question that Mr Macpherson asked sounded quite optimistic. However, we know that we are losing staff and budget from planning authorities.

RTPI Scotland says that its latest analysis of data about planning resources in Scotland shows that the public sector workforce of planners is at its lowest level in five years. The most recent figures, for 2022-23, show that we have a headcount of 1,205 public sector planners in those planning authorities. In the budget that you are proposing now, will that figure increase? If it will, by how much?