Scottish Government ‘disrespects’ four Holyrood Committees

Campaigners have accused the Scottish Government of ‘disrespecting’ the work of four Parliamentary Committees who wrote reports scrutinising the draft Climate Change Plan Update.

Throughout January and February 2021 the Committees heard evidence from experts across a wide variety of sectors of Scottish life and produced detailed reports of this evidence along with their own concerns about the Plan.

On the last day of parliament the Committees received a letter from the Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham saying that the Government will implement the December 2020 version of the Climate Plan. This will effectively ignore the concerns raised by the four committees about various aspects of the Plan.

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Climate Campaigner Jess Cowell said:

“The Scottish Government’s decision is tremendously disrespectful of Parliament and the committee process. Hundreds of hours of parliamentary work have been ignored for now, with the Government only issuing a half-hearted list of responses to four separate Holyrood committees. The timeline was entirely foreseeable yet the Government acts like it was surprised to run out of time.

“The next Scottish Government needs to go back to the recommendations and scrutinise them seriously. This is important in ensuring that MSPs and the experts who gave evidence to Parliament know that their input will be considered appropriately. Scotland’s Climate Plan needs to clearly demonstrate how it will deliver on our climate commitments and map out a clear pathway to reaching them that does not rely on immature and unreliable technologies.”

ENDS