The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 759 contributions
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Jenni Minto
This has been very informative. I will ask David Hope-Jones to answer my question first, but others may wish to comment as well.
In your evidence you said that there was a distinctively Scottish approach to international development. Could you expand on that, perhaps with a few examples from your Malawi experiences?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Jenni Minto
This question may be a bit specific. At our previous meeting, we took evidence about the possible impact of the Subsidy Control Bill on agricultural policy in Scotland. Do such things fall into your remit? How will you work with legislation that may be brought in that impacts the internal market?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Jenni Minto
I have a final question. I am interested to find out what matrices you will use to check whether the UK internal market is working well, efficiently or effectively. Clearly, there are economic and business matrices, but there are also matrices for wellbeing and health. Again, there are concerns about a devolved Government wishing to bring in a specific policy because of a specific issue in its area of competence. Minimum unit pricing for alcohol is an example.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Jenni Minto
I was struck when you said—and I do not mean to misquote you—something along the lines of there not being much evidence gathered with regard to the levels of trade between the UK countries as things stand now. What is the baseline that we will compare to? Does that make sense?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Jenni Minto
I would like to return to the questions that Mr Ruskell asked about engagement. I note that you have done an initial stakeholder survey. What key learnings came from that? I noticed that there was mention of being even-handed. Could you expand a bit on that statement, please? That is for Mr Scott.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Jenni Minto
The budget has £3 million allocated to the carbon-neutral islands project, and the plan is to have at least three carbon-neutral islands by 2040, which supports the Scottish Government’s aim to demonstrate the low-carbon potential of Scotland’s islands as hubs of innovation. How we are progressing with that?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Jenni Minto
I want to ask a general question. You have commented on the fact that there have been hard choices to make in this budget round. When you are creating budgets, the budget headings do not remain constant, and there needs to be some flexibility to ensure that budget is allocated to appropriate areas. Would the cabinet secretary please outline some of the changes that she has made to ensure that rural and island Scotland has fairer allocations to meet the challenges of EU exit and to recover from Covid, as well as for continuing to develop our rural and island economies?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Jenni Minto
I return to Jim Fairlie’s questions on the issues with the supply chain for procuring agricultural equipment. Can the cabinet secretary explain what the impact of Brexit has been in that regard?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Jenni Minto
That leads me to my next question. Covid and EU exit cut across all portfolios. Are there other budget allocations and other portfolios that rural areas might benefit from? In your introductory remarks, you talked about the decrease in the funding settlement from the UK Government. What difficult decisions have you had to make as a result of that?
09:15Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 12 January 2022
Jenni Minto
We have talked about agriculture, but are there any concerns with regard to fisheries in relation to the Subsidy Control Bill or the 2020 act?