Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you.

I wanted to make sure I got a question in. It is not a supplementary question; it is about the good food nation bill.

James and Mary, I am really interested in the stuff you have been talking about regarding the local food supply chain. I would really like to know how we build resilience into that. There seems to be a bit of a dichotomy here. One of the biggest export markets that we have is food and drink. How is the international trade policy of the UK Government going to affect our ability to shorten the supply chains and keep the local touch to our food industry at the same time as we try to do deals around the world?

Thank you for that, convener. Apologies for the confusion.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. As some of you know, I have been involved in food production and the hospitality sector for many years. I am hugely excited by what we can potentially do. There are undoubtedly some major challenges ahead of us—in Brexit, Covid and supply shortages—which we must face. However, ultimately, the Scottish food and drink industry is a massive bonus to Scotland’s economy, people and culture.

What role do panel members see for the good food nation bill, and what expectations do they have for what it can deliver?

I have a specific question for David Thomson on something that he mentioned right at the start of the session. David, you talked about the health connections with food and the potential clash between English and Scottish regulations through the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020. Will you expand on that, please?

I also want to talk about the food processing, marketing and co-operation grant scheme, which has just opened for applications. We need to ask the Scottish Government why there is such a short timeframe for businesses to get an application from conception through to completion before they can ask for the money. Pete Cheema and Colin Smith talked about the go local fund, which is a great initiative. I will leave it at that just now, because I know that we are running out of time.

Good morning, committee members and anybody who is watching. I am delighted to be on the committee, and I have no registrable interests in respect of it.

I nominate Siobhian Brown.

Siobhian Brown was chosen as convener.

I go back to what Alex Rowley said. What has happened has had a specific and detrimental effect on certain sectors. I think that it would be very useful to do something that committees have done in the past. Forgive me if I am being a naive newbie, but it would be very useful to get people who are directly affected, whether they are people who run the airports, hospitality events, such as big festivals, restaurants or hotels. We want to hear from them so that we know exactly what they need in order to recover.

The point that the convener made right at the start was about recovery. How do we recover from the pandemic? We need to know from industry bodies what it is that they need to recover.

I do not know whether we will touch on the long Covid issue, but I know that around 80,000 people now live with long Covid. The question of how people recover from it will probably come up in the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, but do we need to include it in our remit? Getting real-life experience is vital in taking the committee forward.

I put an R in the chat bar but, in all honesty, we are probably saying the same things. We must definitely consider where the crossovers are. Before we started the conversation, I was thinking about sectors of the economy such as hospitality and travel and about health. What aspects of those areas will come under our remit? With that in mind, we should look for regular updates from the clerks and the relevant ministers. To echo what John Mason said, the committee should be available to meet at any time if anything happens. I would like us to focus on aspects of the sectors that I mentioned, if they turn out to be in our remit.

Something crossed my mind earlier when I talked about forestry. We heard about the perception that the rural community is left behind by a central belt Scottish Government. I disagree with that, but I note the conflicts that we have. I absolutely get that we need to tackle the climate emergency, and planting trees is definitely recognised as being part of that, but I think that getting 18,000 hectares a year of the right kind of trees in the right places is more important than getting specific numbers.

It is important to note the conflicts that we have and bring people together so that we can talk about things in a balanced way and find the right solutions or results—things that everybody is happy with. We can continue to keep the rural population where they are and working, and we can also continue to hit our climate change targets. There does not have to be a conflict there. I would like us to focus on how we can bring those issues together so that we can find proper solutions, rather than making them into political footballs.