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It is great to hear that the Standards Commission will provide guidance, but are there any opportunities to give councillors training in this area? I am hearing from my colleagues about certain grey areas where things are not clear and councillors want to be confident that they are doing the right thing.

Good morning and welcome to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee’s seventh meeting in 2021. I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are in silent mode and that all notifications are turned off during the meeting.

Our first agenda item is an evidence-taking session on the “Code of Conduct for Councillors”. I welcome Ben Macpherson, the Minister for Social Security and Local Government. I also welcome Tony Romain and Claire McKenna, who are both senior policy officers in the local government policy and relationships unit at the Scottish Government. They join us virtually.

We will take evidence from the minister before moving to a formal debate on the code of conduct. I ask committee members to declare any interests that they have in the matter.

Thank you, minister. We have a few questions. We will begin with Mark Griffin.

The committee’s report will confirm the outcome of the debate.

As previously agreed, we will move into private session to consider our work programme.

I thank the minister for taking that point on board and Miles Briggs for raising it. I have made a note to keep an eye out for that being made clear in the training.

As there are no further questions, we move to agenda item 2, which is consideration of motion S6M-01124.

Motion moved,

That the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee recommends that the Code of Conduct for Councillors be approved.—[Ben Macpherson]

Motion agreed to.

I invite the minister to make a short opening statement on the code.

My question is on farm animal welfare. In the context of the Scottish islands, in particular, I am interested in hearing your thoughts on the maximum journey times for farmed animals, which are a maximum of nine hours for calves up to nine months old, 12 hours for newly weaned pigs and 21 hours for sheep and cattle. How can we set maximum journey times that do not unduly distress animals while allowing for the longer distances that need to be covered between the mainland and the islands?

Thank you for coming to talk to us about these amendment regulations. I am curious about any burden that might be put on Scottish Forestry. I know that it is already processing felling applications, but will this create any more of a burden for the organisation?

Moving on to the underlying point of my question, I know from my other committee that the whole area of licensing and granting permissions is very much stretching planning departments. That concerns me, given that, in this parliamentary session, we will be shaping Scotland for the next 20-plus years, and departments must be staffed and resourced properly to do that work.

I will direct my question to Kirsty Jenkins and Mike Flynn, if he is back with us. There is a high probability that the new trade deals will allow the importation of animal food products that do not meet the United Kingdom’s animal welfare standards. What are your thoughts on how that situation could be managed and how residents of Scotland could be encouraged to value meat and other animal food products that meet high welfare standards?

Is Mike Flynn back with us?