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Can I come in on that, convener? Regional marine spatial planning is an exciting opportunity. Lucy Kay said that it needs to be supported. Will you be more specific? What would need to be in place to support that?

We are moving on to the theme of sustainable fisheries management, although we have been touching on that. Scotland’s marine environment faces many pressures, as we have been highlighting, such as a change in composition and distribution of species due to climate change; declining seabird populations and the recent bird flu crisis; and sea bed damage due to fishing pressures.

We are interested in the issues around climate change and what is happening on that; a future catching plan and remote electronic monitoring; the proposal to introduce highly protected marine areas; fisheries management plans; and importantly—this has come to light in some ways—enforcement and the lack of resources for it. The evidence shows that there is a need to restore the biodiversity—that has come out in the conversation already and there is agreement on it. We have also talked about the spatial squeeze.

With the arrival on the horizon of the proposal from the Scottish Government and the Greens in the Bute house agreement on HPMAs, I would like to hear first from Bally Philp about how we will manage the spatial squeeze if we bring in HPMAs. We have had conversations about that issue in the past, and it would be good to hear your thoughts.

I want to come in on what Lucy Kay just said, about something that is emerging for me in this conversation. We keep talking about fishers, but there are more stakeholders in Scotland’s inshore, so we need to increase community engagement and that kind of thing. Some weeks ago, we had Marine Scotland in the room and we were talking about HPMAs, and there was a commitment for a co-design—I cannot remember the exact words—and that the community would be involved. What do we mean by “the community”? I am curious to hear what you think. Who should be around the table in thinking about HPMAs around Scotland?

Good morning. I am Ariane Burgess, MSP for the Highlands and Islands region.

We need neutral science, and I am interested in hearing about how we would get that. Someone said that that should come through the Scottish Government. It seems as though you need to be out on the water to get that, and there is an opportunity to do that through vessel monitoring systems and REM. Hannah Fennell mentioned data gathering in Orkney. Do we need Government vessels in all the inshore fisheries groups—I think that Marine Scotland has 18 vessels—so that we can gather information on what is happening on the ground? How do we get to the point at which we all agree on what needs to be gathered and looked at? It seems as though the situation is a bit of a mystery to all of us, and concerns are flying around that we are not basing our decisions on the right information.

Agenda item 3 is consideration of a piece of subordinate legislation. Because the instrument is subject to the negative procedure, there is no requirement for the committee to make any recommendation on it.

Do members have any comments?

Good morning, and welcome to the 25th meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.

I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent mode and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

We have received apologies from Willie Coffey, Marie McNair, Mark Griffin and Annie Wells.

Agenda item 1 is to decide whether to take agenda items 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 2 is to take evidence on the legislative consent memorandum for the United Kingdom Government’s Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill. We are joined, in the committee room, by Craig McLaren, who is director of the Royal Town Planning Institute Scotland. We are joined remotely by Jim Miller, who is the chair of Heads of Planning Scotland, and Liz Hamilton, who is the head of planning at Homes for Scotland. I warmly welcome you all to the meeting.

We have just a few questions, so the meeting might not take all that long. We will focus particularly on the planning data aspect of the LCM. I am interested to hear, from your perspective, whether Scottish planning authorities’ handling of data was raised as an issue with the Scottish Government during the engagement that preceded the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019. If so, at that point, what concerns did you highlight and how did the Scottish Government respond? I will start with Craig McLaren, because he is in the room.

That is great. Does Liz Hamilton want to come in on the question about planning and asking the Scottish Government about it?

Does the planning data cover just the built environment? I am very interested in spatial planning. I feel that, at the moment, we in Scotland do not know how it affects land use, for example. So many critical issues are crunching up against each other, including biodiversity response, renewable energy and housing. All those things are making demands for similar or the same spaces. If we capture that data through the programme that you mentioned, will that help us to understand how we could use our land more appropriately?