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To be honest, I am not fully up to speed on where we are with the membership of the unit. Hilary Pearce may have more up-to-date information.

From our point of view, we want proper regard to be given to the specific concerns of and issues in the devolved Administrations in relation to the membership of the unit. To do their jobs properly, it is essential for the unit’s members to understand the various ways in which things are done differently in the devolved parts of the UK.

Hilary, are you aware of the situation with membership of the unit?

Yes. It is already the case that we work within the interim regulations that are in place. As I said earlier, there have been examples already where we have had to make decisions on whether we feel support is within or outwith the rules, vague as they are. We will do our best to work within the legislation, but that might be more challenging, complex and difficult than it need be.

You are absolutely correct, and you are right to raise the importance of a net zero Scotland. We have seen the developments with ScotWind this week, and there are many examples of Scotland’s globally leading position in many of the technologies and opportunities in relation to the just transition to net zero. We need to be in a position where we have the ability to provide support as we see fit within a set of rules that is transparent, clear and predictable. All of that is important.

If you are asking me whether there is a risk that, as a consequence of where we are at the moment with this bill, we will find it difficult, more time-consuming or impossible to do things that we would otherwise do, I would say that that is absolutely the case. There have already been examples where support has been delayed and we have had to deal with a more complicated process internally as a consequence of a lack of clarity on the guidance and where that takes us.

In answer to your earlier point, of course we agree that there should be subsidy control or state aid regimes in place. It is essential from a good governance point of view and from a global trade point of view that we have those rules at the global level, a bilateral level and EU level. We absolutely recognise the need for that because it works in both directions. It gives certainty to Scottish exporters as well as giving certainty to the steps that the Government and others take within Scotland. The key point is that there needs to be clarity and a process that allows those decisions to be clear in advance and allows for clear guidance about what can and cannot be done.

Yes, it would. One power in a list of powers that the secretary of state will have under the bill is that he or she will be able to operate in devolved areas and on devolved matters. We rightly believe, as do the other devolved Administrations, that equivalent powers should be available to devolved Administrations to do exactly as you have said and to address issues. For example, if we saw a potential distortion, we should be able to refer the matter to the CMA and go through the process in the same way as the secretary of state can.

We are still in discussions. At the end of last week, Mairi Gougeon, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, and I met Paul Scully to go through the issues that I have just outlined, but we did not reach any agreement. We shared our concerns again, as we have done on many occasions. Officials continue to discuss such matters regularly, but unfortunately we have not been able to reach a conclusion on those important issues.

Yes, I echo what you have just said. The underlying point is that there is a lack of clarity and a lack of available guidance. My understanding is that the bank has raised those points. Much of the bank’s work involves lending at commercial rates in a commercial environment, but in a scenario of market failure or a similar scenario in which the bank felt that there was a need to lend money, given its mission, it would require clarity on what was and was not allowed. The lack of clarity in the guidance raises a concern about what may or may not be possible.

That is absolutely right and applies across a range of issues, and it goes back to the points that I made earlier. The bank will have to decide whether things may or may not be done under the subsidy control regime, and if the guidance is not clear, at the first level, that might stop the bank doing things that it might otherwise have done, because of those concerns. As you said, decisions on devolved issues would be made at the UK level, but devolved institutions should be making the decisions based on the specific economic environment in Scotland.

At all levels, it would be preferable and desirable, from a democratic point of view and from an economic and practical point of view, for Scotland to make such decisions and for the Scottish ministers to have powers equivalent to those of the secretary of state.

That is a good question and we have raised it. The cabinet secretary, Mairi Gougeon, had extensive discussions with Paul Scully on this last week. The position that you outlined is correct. Agriculture is normally excluded from subsidy control regimes. It has separate treatment by the World Trade Organization and the EU, through a separate process.

Secondly, agriculture is fully devolved. It is a prime example of an area where we are seeing encroachment of UK Government powers into devolved areas.

Thirdly, of course, Scotland has specific circumstances. That goes back to the point that was made earlier about the fact that the characteristics of the sector in Scotland are different to those in much of the rest of the UK, which means that the ability to have different regimes for subsidies in agriculture within Scotland in practical terms may well evolve over time. Clearly, given that it is a devolved area, we want Scottish ministers and the Scottish Parliament to be able to make decisions on the most appropriate subsidy. Control regimes in wider WTO and trade agreement limitations help us to do that and not to be running the risk of falling foul of concerns raised south of the border about what we are doing. I believe that the Welsh Government is aligned with our position on that.

Our ask is that devolved ministers would have equivalent powers to the secretary of state in that regard.

We have made representations that there should be a review of the timelines in the bill. I mentioned in my opening remarks that interested parties do not have long enough to appeal. We think that the one-month period in which to give notice of an appeal could be extended to allow those parties to raise any issues. In terms of transparency, that has been our commentary on the bill.