Seòmar agus comataidhean

The minister touched on this in her opening statement. She wrote to the UK Government to say that the Scottish Government did not want to

“create further regulatory divergence on the regulation of GMOs, when the European Commission is in the process of conducting its own consultation on the issues.”

The Scottish Government clearly takes a more cautious position on gene editing, which aligns more closely with that of the EU. I would like to find out more about the implications of further regulatory divergence on GMOs for the UK internal market and for the effectiveness of Scottish regulations.

I imagine that they are.

We will move to the new deal for local government and the local governance review, and ask a few questions in that area.

The committee would be interested in receiving an update on the progress towards agreeing a new deal with local government. In November, the Minister for Social Security and Local Government informed the committee that a deal would be agreed

“in advance of the next financial year.”

That is quite soon. Will that still be the case? If so, why were there so few details of the new deal in the budget document?

We have a little time in hand, so I am going to loop back to the affordable housing conversation. I want to pick up on rural housing. The reduction in the budget for the affordable housing supply programme will likely add to increasing pressure on landlords and local authorities to provide sufficient housing in their communities. Therefore, I am keen that we support community-led developments to complement our national efforts to tackle the rural housing crisis.

Through the work that I have been doing in my region, it has become clear that community housing enabling organisations play a vital role. I am aware of around 600 projects in my region across 150 communities that are in a pipeline process. The work that the enablers are doing is very much to do with the reform piece that you have talked about. It is work that needs facilitation and time. It is about bringing communities to a place where they really understand whether they have the capacity and confidence to take the leap to take housing forward. That is quite an onerous thing to do. I would be interested to hear how the budget supports rural housing enablers to support communities in taking action on the housing crisis that they are experiencing.

Thank you very much for coming to the meeting, giving us your evidence, and responding to our questions. It has been very helpful to the committee to hear a bit more detail on the thinking behind the budget allocation.

As we agreed at the start of the meeting, we will take the remainder of our agenda items in private. We have no more public business today, so I now close the public part of the meeting.

That would be very helpful.

In your opening statement, minister, you said that delivery is a challenge at this time, given the public finances. I think that a national forum would be a really important element in bringing people together. Has the Scottish Government taken into account the costs of establishing a national forum? You mentioned that the GrowGreen Scotland initiative is funded with £20,000 a year. Have you looked at the costs of a national forum?

Having been involved in community growing for many years, both in Scotland and in New York city, I am sure that where there’s a will, there’s a way and that, if the opportunities are made clearer for people, through Government and local authority leadership, we will find the opportunity for the co-benefits that you have outlined.

Is there adequate data available to say whether the legislation has been a success? If so, what impact has part 9 of the act had over its five years of implementation? You have identified the co-benefits and things such as that, but I would like to hear a bit more from you.

What you pointed out about additional guidance could be good. We talked in the report about the need for leadership. I imagine that, when a local authority is busy doing the work that it needs to do and it then needs to take on something new, getting into the new workstream is difficult, and guidance can always help to ease the way.

I will focus on the role of the coming Scottish food commission. The Government response to the committee’s report notes

“the links between the local good food nation plans and the food growing strategies”

and that those are for local authorities to determine. Given our very welcome move towards more sustainable and locally grown food, I am keen to hear the Scottish Government’s thoughts on the commission’s role under part 9 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 and on creating the links. Good food nation plans are about local authorities procuring to their public kitchens, whereas part 9 of the 2015 act is more about local food community growing and such things. There is a connection, or there needs to be a connection, because I notice that there is confusion. If we do not make the connection, there could be confusion.

Thank you very much for those answers.

Does the support come their way when they enter the Scottish land fund process?