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Are you not routinely monitoring either of those?

However, you still have a responsibility, I think, to monitor and assess those impacts, and I am not hearing that you are doing that. With regard to noise in particular, you can do things including management of different flight paths, which I have not heard you talk about.

I will move on to sustainable aviation fuel. Earlier this year, the Royal Society published a report that considered a suite of four options that looked as if they might present possibilities for sustainable aviation fuel development. It concluded that none of the four options looks as if it will replace fossil jet fuel in the near future.

Can you outline how quantified your target is to replace one of your seven fuel tanks with SAF? What is the timescale for that? How robust is that? Is it just wishful thinking? Is it the case that you want to do it, but the technology does not exist yet?

I did not hear an answer to the question about how confident you are that it could happen. The Royal Society is quite clear that, in the short term, none of the options that are currently being explored looks likely to replace fossil jet fuel in the short term. I am considering longer-term risk. You said that you will do it, but I have not heard a timescale, so if and when it does not happen, what will happen to your overall assessment?

I understand what you say about the expectations that you would have of any business or any airport, regardless of ownership structure or model, but there is a question for me, given what the airport’s annual report indicates as a success. It is on track to reach 50 per cent carbon emission reduction in its operations by 2030. There is also the vague but current thinking on opportunities around sustainable aviation fuel and other things. In terms of not only the airport’s carbon emission reduction but its shift into the broader net zero space for Scotland’s industry and energy accounting, are there conditions that, as the owner, the Scottish Government can put on it that could not be done in the private sector? The airport has been in public ownership for 10 years, so I was quite surprised to learn that there is no social responsibility investment statement or a clear environmental, social and governance statement. As its public owners, could we be doing better right now, never mind about looking forward and hoping for a different model in the future?

I understand the opportunities. It seems as if you are ready to take advantage of them, if they materialise.

My final question is on a different topic. Audit Scotland recommended the development of a clear exit strategy for public investment in the airport. How are you assessing and measuring value for money in the investment of public money?

Good morning. Thank you for joining us.

My first cluster of questions is on the environmental impact and net zero. Forsyth Black’s opening comments mentioned activities and progress in relation to net zero and reducing emissions in the airport’s operations. I want to think about the environmental impact beyond carbon emissions. How do you measure and assess your impact on the airport’s immediate environment? I am talking about impacts other than carbon emissions.

I am asking you about your assessment of your non-carbon environmental impact. How do you measure, monitor and mitigate that impact? As you have told us, you have a substantial site of more than 800 acres to manage, so how are you measuring your broader environmental impact in the area where you are?

In your opening remarks, you talked about the relationship that the airport has with Ayrshire College and about the skills development through that. Will you say a little bit more about that and how you see it as being central to the broader objectives for the airport’s future that we have been talking about this morning?

Thanks—that is helpful.

My question follows on from one of Kevin Stewart’s lines of questioning and is about the medium-term strategic outlook for the airport.

The Scottish Government considers the airport to be a strategic infrastructure asset and the decision taken to save jobs 10 years ago is noted, but I have a question about the relationship between the Government’s ownership of the airport and its ability to deliver on strategic priorities such as business diversification, net zero or any of the other issues mentioned by the earlier witnesses. If there was a transfer of ownership, or if the airport was released back to the private sector, there would not necessarily be the same potential to apply conditions or to focus on certain elements of those strategic objectives. Can you say a little about your assessment of the likelihood of Prestwick becoming the kind of airport that you think it ought to be and about how that might be different under private sector, as opposed to Government, ownership?