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 2045 contributions
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 February 2022
Jim Fairlie
Indeed. Thank you.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 February 2022
Jim Fairlie
If you are talking about home working in rural areas, land has to be available so that we can build houses to allow young people to stay there.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 February 2022
Jim Fairlie
As the cabinet secretary is aware, we are also taking evidence on the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill. Conversely, I will talk about the urban setting in terms of how this planning policy is giving local authorities the opportunity to take due regard of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill in the planning process. This is probably not a question; it is more an observation that that is something that will be vital. You have answered that you are taking a cross-cutting approach and that this consultation is looking at lots of policies. I want to make sure that there is due regard taken of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill so that people in the urban areas can get access to food-growing areas.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 February 2022
Jim Fairlie
My question follows on from Alasdair Allan’s and Rachael Hamilton’s questions. This is a complicated area, particularly in rural settings, because it is cross-cutting and it involves different land uses and different demands on the same land. How is the Government looking to marry all those things up?
On land availability and land prices, the price of hill land is going through the roof because we are planting more trees on it and we are doing peatland restoration, which is driving the price up. On connectivity and 20-minute neighbourhoods, what are we doing about more public transport? Does the plan include anything to look at that? Is there anything in the plan that will ensure that we get broadband rolled out? It is about creating infrastructure that will work for the communities in rural settings. How are you bringing all that together? Sorry—I know that that is a complicated question.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 February 2022
Jim Fairlie
Yes.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 February 2022
Jim Fairlie
What about the impact of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 February 2022
Jim Fairlie
You raise the important point that the bill brings to the surface some of the fantastic work that is being done but is not documented, so people do not know about it. In effect, creating the plan will let us see where we are. There is a lot of conversation about how bad public procurement is in local authorities, but we might be doing a hell of a lot more than we realise, and the plans will bring that to the surface.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 February 2022
Jim Fairlie
That emphasises the point that I was trying to make, which is that some local authorities might be starting from a very low base and then we will have authorities such as East Ayrshire that are starting from a very high base. We cannot start the process for every local authority at the same point.
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 9 February 2022
Jim Fairlie
I have a little supplementary on that. George Burgess suggested that the electoral cycle would ensure that elected members would be held to account. That is not the case with health boards and I think that there is an issue there. It is difficult to hold health boards to account to ensure that their plans are right.
I go back to scrutiny. You suggested that we perhaps did not need a new body. Are you suggesting that local authorities could have an obligation to consult with other bodies? For example, on inequalities, you would go to a body, which could be Food Standards Scotland, to scrutinise how your plan addressed inequality? Does there need to be a requirement for local authorities to do that? Do all the bodies need to play a role?
Jayne Jones, I would like you to answer that question. It was something that you touched on.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 3 February 2022
Jim Fairlie
If I have time for one more quick question, I would like to know where we are on long Covid, in terms of our understanding of it, the effect that we are having on it and how we are treating it.