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They were part-time staff, I think, and they were probably running facilities at the venue such as bars. However, the greyhound track is not open, and it has not been open for some time.

I do not want to see the rehoming of greyhounds that have had to be rescued from the industry because they have been damaged and face trauma; I want to end that. Those who work in the greyhound rehoming sector want to end greyhound racing as well. They do not want the problem of having dozens of dogs to rehome—and, let us face it, the majority of them come from England, where about 490 trainers are racing dogs. They do not want to have to deal with that trauma or with the rehabilitation of dogs and the extensive veterinary treatment that they require.

If there is a rehoming crisis—and I believe that there is one—it is being driven across the UK by the number of dogs that are being wasted month in, month out. Young dogs at the prime of their life are facing injuries. I read out some testimonies from individuals who have rehomed greyhounds, and they very much accord with my lived experience of doing that.

The way to tackle the rehoming crisis is to end greyhound racing and end the inherent risk. That is what the bill would do in Scotland and it is what the Welsh bill will do in Wales. It is for other jurisdictions to consider—as jurisdictions around the world have done—whether they want to continue with the same numbers of dogs coming through week in, week out. It is heartbreaking. Charities are trying to find forever homes for these dogs, but there are so many. Fundamentally, the way to address the rehoming crisis is to end the need to rehome greyhounds.

I would need to reflect on individual submissions, particularly those that have come from animal welfare charities, but that has been an area of discussion with them. There is an understanding among animal welfare charities that the bill has a narrow focus; it is focused on the inherent risk associated with racing a greyhound in Scotland. However, there is a wider concern. Again, it is a question for the Scottish Government as to how it will address that concern. I would like to see some progress in that area, but that should not detract from what the bill is trying to achieve, which is the first step of establishing an offence of racing a greyhound in Scotland.

The issue comes on the back of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 not being able to address the issues that surround the racing of greyhounds in Scotland. That is partly because greyhound racing is inherently a lawful activity, so it has been difficult to prove that there has been unnecessary suffering of greyhounds. The 2006 act has not worked, in that it has not dealt with that inherent suffering. Therefore, the only way forward, as I see it, is to bring in the offence of racing a greyhound.

My hope is that other jurisdictions will perhaps follow Scotland’s lead. The Welsh bill is going through the Senedd at the moment and there is an active discussion about the issue in Ireland. There are countries, states and jurisdictions around the world that have gone ahead and banned greyhound racing while this committee has been taking evidence. There is a direction of travel and an international consensus that creating the offence of racing a greyhound is the right way to go. I hope that, over time, such consensus will result in benefits for all dogs.

I have not taken evidence on that. On the back of the committee’s evidence and the work that it has done on this issue for many years, my conclusion was to create the offence that is in the bill. That has been the focus. If there were to be wider consideration of a licence, that would be a question for the Scottish Government.

The scope of the bill, should it get to stage 2, will be a matter for the convener. My view, and the view of the Scottish Government, is that we should focus on the stand-alone offence. I do not discount the wider issues. If you wish to discuss the matter further with the minister or with me, I would be content for that discussion to happen.

I point to the committee’s excellent report, which looked at breeding, the relationship with breeding in Ireland, kennelling and other issues. Again, those issues are outwith the scope of the bill, but the committee made helpful recommendations to the Scottish Government about the work that it wants the Scottish Government to undertake in relation to those wider concerns.

This is a member’s bill and it is tightly drawn. There are wider animal welfare implications of greyhound racing, but how the Government addresses them is properly a matter for it to consider in due course.

Yes. That is what the scientific evidence shows us. It is the nature of the high-speed race, the fact that greyhounds are very fast dogs and the forces that are exerted on the dogs that lead to injuries and deaths. I do not know whether members have ever watched a greyhound race—I have not been to a greyhound racing stadium, but I have watched many races on television, as well as excerpts of races—but they will know that the speed of the dogs is phenomenal. They enjoy running, and they will run very fast, to the point where they will injure and, potentially, kill themselves. It is important that we draw a line under that.

No races are currently taking place at Thornton. I do not think that there have been any races since March this year, but I would point to what may happen in the future, particularly if the bill does not go ahead. The committee received evidence from Paul Brignal, the owner of the Thornton stadium, in response to the call for views. He indicated that, if it were not for the bill and the campaigning around it, Thornton would now be GBGB licensed. He wrote:

“the Stadium would have been racing under GBGB rules and providing part of the SIS service to betting sites all over the world, and would have been a thriving business contributing to the Scottish economy.”

The appetite is there for the one remaining greyhound racing stadium in Scotland to expand and get GBGB certification, which would mean many more races in Scotland, many more dogs racing, a higher frequency of races, more injuries and more deaths.

Partly because of the scrutiny of the committee, the member’s bill and the petition, greyhound racing currently does not exist in Scotland. However, the future may look very different. I draw the committee’s attention to the proposal to end greyhound racing in Wales that looks as though it will go through the Welsh Senedd. If the Prohibition of Greyhound Racing (Wales) Bill goes through the Senedd and is approved, investors may look to invest in upgrading tracks elsewhere in the UK. If the bill before the committee does not go through, they may well look to Scotland and decide to invest in Thornton. The future is uncertain; what happens will depend on whether the Parliament approves the bill.

I cannot see it, convener. If somebody wanted to race greyhounds around a barn, for example, that would not work. I am not sure how they could hide it. The tracks are hundreds of metres long—you can see them from space. I am not sure how effectively greyhound racing could go underground to a point where it could not be detected.

The SSPCA and local authority inspectors have existing duties under the 2006 act to investigate unnecessary suffering, alongside the police, if that is appropriate in a particular incident. If such a situation arose, they would probably already be there to look at wider aspects of animal welfare and whether the 2006 act was being breached. They would be in the mix anyway if there was an investigation. It would probably be the police, primarily, who would take responsibility for seeing who was organising the race and who was racing the dogs. It would then be for other inspectors to consider any wider welfare impacts.

I have acknowledged the position of the Government and officials in relation to bringing the bill closer to the 2006 act. If there was a way to make the bill fit more neatly with the existing powers of inspectors, I would be open to that.

Yes, the issue has been raised, particularly by animal welfare charities, which would like to see progress on greyhound welfare everywhere in the UK and an end to greyhound racing everywhere in the UK and Ireland.

The bill is very tightly drawn and creates a stand-alone offence of racing a greyhound and organising the racing of greyhounds in Scotland. It is obviously not possible for us in this Parliament to create an offence around racing a greyhound in Swindon, Oxford or, indeed, Wales. The issues around dogs that are kennelled in Scotland, whose trainers live in Scotland and that are taken to races around the UK relate to existing practice—it happens at the moment. I am concerned about some of the welfare implications of that practice, particularly around kennelling, breeding and transportation, but it is not within the scope of the bill.

There may be a case for the Scottish Government considering wider licensing. For example, is animal transport licensing currently working effectively for racing greyhounds? Are local authorities enforcing it? However, that is outwith the scope of the bill. As the member might recall, I asked that question of the minister during last week’s evidence session. I would like the Government to conduct a wider review, but that review would also be outside the scope of the bill. It may be that such a review could consider other animals and other breeds of dog. The Government might need to do a larger piece of work.

I note that, alongside introducing its bill, which will create a stand-alone offence of racing a greyhound, the Welsh Government has committed to doing a wider piece of work to review the existing regulatory framework in Wales in relation to racing greyhounds that cross the Welsh border. The Scottish Government could also do such a review, but it would not be within the scope of this bill, which is about creating a narrow offence and giving the courts enforcement powers on the back of that.

I point to what happened in Wales, which had an unlicensed track—the last unlicensed track in Wales. It sought investment, registered with GBGB and, as a result of that, started televising races around the world. The number of races went up, the number of dogs involved went up and, as a result, the number of injuries and deaths went up. That might change, if the Welsh Senedd approves a bill to end greyhound racing in Wales.

If we do not agree to the bill, the same could happen here: the last remaining unlicensed track could get licensed, and, based on the figures that come from GBGB, I do not think that that would lead to a welfare improvement. If anything, it could result in more dogs being raced, more dogs dying and more dogs being injured. That is the risk.