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Will they be time limited? If we accept that we have an endemic disease in our community, will the passports be required forever? That is the terminology that is being used in the emails that I am getting.

I thank the panel very much for attending this morning. I have two or three questions that I would like to cover. They might be a wee bit jumbled up, but please bear with me.

I absolutely agree with what Mr Rowley said about compliance. More than half of the people in my hotel dining room this morning were not wearing face masks. There is possibly an issue about the fact that although we still have face mask control in Scotland, it is not in place in other parts of the country. People coming in really need to know what the regulations are in this country.

When we had a panel of young people here last week, we asked them, “Do you feel that the restrictions have been done to you or are you complying with them because you are part of the process?” They very much came back with the belief that it was being done to them, and the vaccine passports will again feel like something that is being done to people. That goes back to the messaging that Mr Swinney spoke about. While we are putting the Covid vaccine passports in place, could there be something far more visible and vibrant and stronger in the messaging that we put out about how important it is to get the vaccine to that specific demographic?

I would like to clarify a point that you made. The Scottish Government introduced minimum unit pricing for alcohol. Is that the kind of area where we might run into difficulty?

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.