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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 13 July 2025
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Displaying 1920 contributions

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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Climate Change Governance Stocktake

Meeting date: 12 March 2024

Monica Lennon

I appreciate that there are different targets and situations for different councils, but how confident are you that Scotland’s councils can meet their net zero ambitions? Are the targets realistic?

10:45  

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Climate Change Governance Stocktake

Meeting date: 12 March 2024

Monica Lennon

Can you point to any really good examples of collaboration? Obviously, at a high level, there is the Verity house agreement. In practice, where do we see really good collaborative approaches between local government and the Scottish Government emerging?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 6 March 2024

Monica Lennon

Will the minister join me in commending South Lanarkshire Council for introducing ambitious town centre master plans for Hamilton and East Kilbride? Will the Government outline how it will support local authorities, which have seen a massive decline in the number of planning officers and other experts in local government? How can we get more resources and support for our planning departments?

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Environmental Governance

Meeting date: 5 March 2024

Monica Lennon

I have a brief supplementary on the point about judicial review. We heard today about the prohibitive cost of judicial review to not just communities but organisations. To follow up on what Mark Roberts said to Bob Doris, how much budget is set aside for judicial review and other legal costs? Is there a cap on that? You talked about your strategic plan, but it would be helpful to give some indication of how much is set aside for those purposes.

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Environmental Governance

Meeting date: 5 March 2024

Monica Lennon

The topic has been mentioned a few times in the session today; it is very much on the radar of ESS and the Scottish Government.

I am looking for an update on what ESS has been doing to assess whether, and to what extent, Scotland is keeping pace with EU environmental standards. Dr Dixon, you helpfully mentioned the example of ecocide law. Even in the past week, there have been big developments in that regard. A European Parliament press release from six days ago stated that

“Environmental crime is the fourth largest criminal activity worldwide”,

so it is no surprise that the EU has taken action to approve

“new rules on environmental crimes and related sanctions”

and crimes that are

“comparable to ecocide”.

The Scottish Government is aware of that and has told me that it is continuing to monitor the situation. Nonetheless, the EU legislation is now coming into force. Is that an example of where there is live discussion between ESS and the Scottish Government?

In addition, the Ecocide Bill, which is a private member’s bill, has been introduced in the House of Lords. Are we seeing a bit more activity in that area?

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Environmental Governance

Meeting date: 5 March 2024

Monica Lennon

That is really helpful. Earlier I should have added my thanks to Jim Martin, the outgoing chair, and to Mark Roberts, the staff team and the board for all the amazing work that they have done in the past couple of years.

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 5 March 2024

Monica Lennon

Wonderful.

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 5 March 2024

Monica Lennon

I am listening with interest, minister, because you are clearly passionate about the opportunities for young people to use the concessionary travel scheme.

You talked about your constituent being able to travel into the city for education purposes. That is a live topic across Scotland right now. Although we all want to be enthusiastic about the potential of the under-22s bus pass, in many local authorities, school bus transport is being cut and, unfortunately, young people have been told that they cannot use their school bus passes on the service buses. Is there potential for more flexibility so that young people who want to and need to use the bus to get to school—for essential purposes—can do that, rather than, as for my young constituents, having to walk almost three miles on unsafe routes to get to secondary school?

Parents are now saying that they will have to start using the car to drive young people to school, which will cause more emissions and poor air quality. Given the levers that you have—including the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, which is older than me, believe it or not—and now that we have a potentially trailblazing young persons bus pass, is it not time to look at all that, to prevent people giving up on public transport and starting to car share using private cars when they do not want to do that? Are you willing to come and speak to some of those young people and their parents in Lanarkshire?

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 5 March 2024

Monica Lennon

Okay. Is that more than a couple of weeks?

Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 5 March 2024

Monica Lennon

It is great that you are new in post, so you can look at things with fresh eyes, but, without telling us what the recommendations are likely to be, do you anticipate that those recommendations will be implemented before the end of the current parliamentary session, or are we talking about things that will happen further into the future?