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That is a fair point. I should also have referred to the fact that the market is developing and that there are more producers. Accessibility for consumers is growing, and the cost to consumers is reducing. I am conscious that what is available to people will move quite quickly in the next decade, and that we need agility.

Convener, can I—

We want to hear your view. The convener asked specifically about section 3(2). I am looking for a clear position on that and how it relates to the timing, the sequence of events, or both. With all due respect to all involved, I just do not think that that was made clear when the discussion took place.

That is helpful. Thanks for your time.

As the MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, where Breadalbane Street is, I want to express my gratitude to and admiration for everyone who responded on that night. Edinburgh Northern and Leith is the most densely populated part of Scotland. There are important points to take from that whole scenario about making sure that there is adequate coverage in urban Scotland. My understanding is that the reason why action on Breadalbane Street was taken so swiftly was because the team at McDonald Road, which is not far away, was in McDonald Road that evening, and that included the height appliance and the secondary vehicle.

To expand on some of the things that were said earlier this year and last year, do you want to say a bit more about the importance of height appliances and secondary vehicles being on scene as soon as possible? Although we want our crews to do more and we want to expand their roles day to day, and although the number of fires has decreased because of smoke alarms and other safety features in homes, it strikes me that the most important consideration is to make sure that there is capacity for the times when the risk goes up. We need to ensure that the geographical spread of height appliances and secondary vehicles is not constrained in a way that increases the risk in a manner that means that crews could not get to a situation such as that in Breadalbane Street quickly enough.

For example, I have heard that, when the Ayr station hotel was being attended to, the crew from McDonald Road in my constituency was in Glasgow. I am concerned about what would have happened if the Breadalbane Street fire had happened that night. It is a hard balance, but is there more that you want to say about that?

I want briefly to make sure that I was absolutely clear in that first question. I appreciate that there is a need to maintain and, in certain circumstances, to improve coverage in more rural and remote areas and in areas where there are population-decrease challenges. However, the east of the country, where the population is growing significantly and, as I said, 85 per cent of Scotland’s projected population growth will be in the Lothians, will require an increase in capacity in certain areas.

Do you want to say any more about the importance of second vehicles in relieving the initial crews that are on site? That is perhaps worth putting on the public record.

I presume that the FBU is pushing hard at United Kingdom level for the UK Government to step up its funding of fire and rescue services across the UK. Of course, that would have a consequentials consideration, particularly in capital budgets, and would significantly contribute to the Scottish Government’s capacity to provide more funding up here. I want to hear a bit about what the FBU is doing to push the UK Government to step up and spend more on fire services.

I will go back to some of the points that were made at the beginning about the 21st century and the changing risk profile. You also talked about societal and climate issues. Do you have further comments about the geographic aspect? What strikes me about the challenge of providing 24-hours-a-day coverage across the country is that the population is shifting, as well. That cuts across all statutory services.

More broadly, there is our collective challenge in Scotland in the public sector, because of the projected 85 per cent population growth in the Lothians and depopulation in the west and north of the country. How do you factor those population shifts into your planning?

The other point that I mentioned was 24-hours-a-day coverage. From memory of the statistics, although they showed that around 20 per cent of calls are at night, that is within a period of eight hours, which is a third of the day. To me, that emphasises the challenge and need to make sure that you have adequate resource ready for deployment at such points in the day. There might be fewer calls, but the need will be just as acute.

On the points that have just been made, we will also need to keep an eye on what the European Union does in this space, because when that huge market begins to regulate, it could have a significant impact in terms of market change. Perhaps there will be good lessons learned from Scotland and elsewhere that can help in that process.