Seòmar agus comataidhean

I thank our witnesses for coming today.

The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission’s report makes recommendations around minimising and monitoring welfare risks, specifically on the presence of a veterinarian when dogs are racing, for the

“collection of independent data on injuries and fatalities at stadia.”

It continues:

“We suggest reviewing these metrics, and whether racing should continue, within the next 3-5 years”.

However, the report concludes that, even if a dog track is regulated by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, which requires a vet to be present when dogs are racing, any welfare strategy is

“unlikely to have a significant impact on injury rates in dogs in the foreseeable future.”

In the light of that, would a better course of action not be a more immediate phase-out of dog racing?

Will you confirm that it is the view of the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission that racing at unlicensed tracks should not continue?

Does that not contradict the body’s previous statement, last May, that it did not support the continuation of greyhound racing at unlicensed tracks in Scotland?

I am not sure that my question falls within the scope of today’s evidence session, so I will be guided by the convener on this. While we are on the subject of a well-functioning food and drink supply chain, can you say to what extent your members see challenges in the existing trade agreements that we have with regard to their ability to maintain Scotland’s agricultural sector and improve food security for the nation?

I will do my best, convener.

NFUS members will be all too aware of the interdependence between food production and having a thriving natural environment and biodiversity. I have three questions for you, Jonnie. First, what opportunities do your members see for the farming sector in supporting biodiversity and nature restoration? Secondly, what challenges, if any, do they see? Thirdly—this is important with reference to the proposed agriculture bill—what policy is needed to support your members in that regard?

I have questions about producer registration. The initial deadline was 1 March. Is it correct that extending that would require a change in the regulations?

Finally on that topic, if a producer registers after 30 June, would its registration be considered for the following year—because you said that the deadline is 1 March each year—or could the registration be processed to get their products on to the market in the current year?

Yes. It is in response to your point, minister, about the need to address the issue of green lairds. You seem to suggest that part of the work to do that involves expanding community right to buy. However, the carbon credit model has the inadvertent consequence of increasing the price of land, so communities are then priced out and they are even more reliant on Government funding to buy land. It strikes me as quite a short-term solution to go down the route of a private financing model. In the long term, that increasingly prices out communities and the public from land.

Would it not be more prudent to adopt a community wealth building model that uses public funding but that locks that into the local area, so that the whole community and, by extension, the country benefit rather than overseas private finance companies, potentially?

I was.

When will that continue until?