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You raised a number of points. I think that Edinburgh needs to be looked at very much on its own. I had meetings with the Edinburgh International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe and we tried to be as accommodating as possible with them about exemptions. We met the council as well. They were really positive meetings.

The Taylor Swift and Oasis concerts have been mentioned, and there is a capacity issue in Edinburgh. The council needs to undertake a piece of work on the capacity of the city. That is an important point. The issue of short-term lets was raised when Taylor Swift was here or when other events have happened, but there is a broader capacity issue that Edinburgh needs to look at. I have discussed that with the council: what can Edinburgh actually take?

It is a case of supply and demand. You might think that short-term lets have a role in that, but the much broader supply-and-demand issue is whether there is enough hotel space for a Taylor Swift or Oasis concert. The council needs to look at that. I do not think that trying to compare hotel space with short-term lets is the best comparison to make. Edinburgh needs to look at its capacity for events.

There is a similar situation with the Commonwealth games, for example. Part of the work that the Commonwealth games team and Glasgow will be doing is to look at the capacity for taking in visitors.

There needs to be a broader review, as we mentioned when we spoke to the festivals. There is a much broader issue for Edinburgh, and I think that you may argue that short-term lets are part of that. The council obviously has to look at the issue in the context of its short-term lets control area, which has nothing to do with licensing as such. Like any local authority, the council has the right, and was given authority from the Scottish Government, to look at having short-term lets control areas. However, the issue with Edinburgh is very much about capacity, and not just short-term lets.

I will clarify the situation. As far as I am aware, the only exemption that the City of Edinburgh Council had was for the Edinburgh festival and so on. I mentioned the discussions about exemptions that I had with the council, the festival and the fringe in relation to the capacity issues that Meghan Gallacher raised. The council may come back to us on the Taylor Swift concerts or the Oasis concerts. I am not aware of the situation as regards exemptions in those periods. I do not know whether Anita Stewart is aware of any other exemptions. I have mentioned the events that we would be looking at.

Whether we are talking about an Oasis concert, a Taylor Swift concert or any other big event, whether in Edinburgh, Glasgow or anywhere else, capacity has to be looked at as part of the planning for such events. Thought needs to be given to how much a city can take in relation to short-term lets, hotel spaces and whatever other capacity is available. That is a piece of work that needs to be done. That falls outwith my remit, but I would always push any local authority to consider what its capacity is to take in an additional 60,000 guests who might be staying for two or three days.

I do not know whether Anita Stewart has anything else to say about exemptions, but the only discussions that I have had have been about the Edinburgh festival and the festival fringe, which, as you know, are long-established events.

I will bring in Anita Stewart in a second. The important point is that, right at the start of this process, we said that we would pull the expert group together. It will be incredibly important as we go through the implementation updates and discuss what we do going forward. We have met VisitScotland and a number of other groups that also have an interest in the matter. As for the expert group itself, Anita Stewart has been dealing with the remit, membership and timescales. I will bring her in and come back after she has given a bit more detail about the logistics and why we pulled the group together.

I will bring in Andy Kinnaird in a little while. We have had various proposals about how we make that process a lot quicker. Edinburgh, for example, has the ability to do that in the short-term lets control area, as has every other local authority. I know that Highland Council is looking at an area or two at the moment. That separate ability relates to a planning point of view.

On licensing, one of the keys things that has come up if a licensing application is going in is whether there is a material change of use. Again, it has been up to each local authority to look at that.

Anita Stewart talked about the broader review that the expert group, chaired by VisitScotland, will look at. The group will go into planning and licensing in a little bit more detail. I will bring in Andy Kinnaird, because I know that he has been looking at the process of licensing and planning. He may want to make other comments, too.

A number of things are emerging. I remember discussing this issue as a member of the committee. In relation to applications, it was estimated that we were talking about 32,000 properties. At the moment, we are talking about a figure of about 30,500, although it is expected that that will go up to about 35,000. The figures are ahead of where we thought that they would be, but we must remember that the initial figures were produced during the Covid period, when there would have been businesses that were struggling to continue.

There has been a slight contrast between the situation in Highland, for example, where the numbers have been very high, and those in Glasgow and Edinburgh, where they have been slightly lower than expected. However, the City of Edinburgh Council has the short-term let control area, and Glasgow City Council is talking about managing the provision of short-term lets. That relates to short-term let control areas as opposed to licensing.

The tourism sector has been recovering reasonably well, although it continues to face the cost of living crisis and so on.

Broadly speaking, we are slightly ahead of where we thought that we would be. The number of short-term lets has fallen slightly, by around 1 per cent or so. There has not been a substantial drop. With regard to the wider impact, we will need to see what happens in the coming months, over Hogmanay, next summer and so on.

Anita, do you have anything to add?

I come from a local authority background and I know that there are obviously different licensing regimes operating. It is very much the case that, if a complaint is received, it will be investigated and the approach will be to ask whether there is something that can be discussed, before it gets to the enforcement stage. There is always that first stage, because enforcement will always be the last resort. We have seen, in any previous licensing regimes, that it is always about having a discussion to try to alleviate the problem and, if not, enforcement is the last resort. As Anita Stewart said, it is about making sure that, if something is reported, we speak to local authorities and police authorities about the best way to deal with it. Local approaches will vary, but it is about following the existing regimes and licensing schemes. Talk to people, try to alleviate the problem or take it away and, if not, enforcement is the last resort. We cannot have people operating illegally, under either this or any other licensing scheme. It is very much about following the procedures that are there for existing licensing schemes.

We have been aware of some such applications being made. It comes back to the point about where things sit legally if people apply for licences when there is not anything there. The issue has been raised with us, and I will bring in Anita Stewart and Margaret Main to talk about the legal aspects.

I am trying to understand the question. I will bring Anita in.

Again, I will bring in Anita Stewart on the specifics. Enforcement was raised early in our discussions. It very much depends on what the actual issue is that requires enforcement. The subject was discussed with Police Scotland and I know that Anita Stewart has talked with local authorities about that and about what we need to do. Enforcement has not been widely abused or used at this particular time.

Issues very much depend on whether it is Edinburgh or the Highlands, for example. Again, the review will look at whether enforcement is a significant issue. I will bring in Anita Stewart, but I am aware that there have not been issues in any significant numbers. It will be very much down to where the local authority is, what the issue is and what we need to do to make sure that that is okay.

As you will probably know, there have been high numbers of applications in some areas, such as the Highlands, and there has been some anecdotal evidence about applications coming in very late in the process. We have been in discussions with individual local authorities on the general numbers, and we will also discuss with them where they are with complex cases. There are always discussions with SOLAR and individual local authorities when the level of applications is higher than we expected. There will be a degree of complexity with some cases, and such issues are discussed in our regular discussions with local authorities.

The key message to get across is that existing holders are still allowed to operate while a new application is considered, and it is in their interests to ensure that the correct information and everything else comes through as quickly as possible. If the person was an existing operator before the application was made, they can, of course, continue to operate during that time.

We have had discussions with local authorities that have had a much higher number of applications than was expected, which is obviously a good sign for the local authority.

I do not know whether Anita Stewart wants to add anything.