The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 789 contributions
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 26 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
I am interested in what Polly Jones said about the causes of hunger and the connection with incomes. There is obviously a great deal that the bill can do and it will be interesting to see what is in the plan. Can you say any more, given your experience of running food banks, about the impact on nutrition and on incomes of measures such as universal credit?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 26 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
My only other question is for Claire White. Like Claire, I live on an island, and I am very interested in what she had to say about supply chains and the market for food locally.
What more do you think can be done—I do not say to reverse the trend—to promote places in islands where food that is produced locally can reach an even wider market locally? In many places, as you have touched on, as in the rest of Scotland, supermarkets have a very large market share of the sale of food, and whether supermarkets choose to stock much local produce at all is variable. What options does Scotland have to ensure that island communities such as yours see more locally produced food on island shelves?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 26 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
I suppose that it is just a comment. Given what we have just heard today about the ingenuity that has been used and is used by many families who are struggling to pay for food, I wonder whether Ms Hamilton would reconsider the phrase that she used about families who are hungry possibly being “less ... educated” in how to cook.
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 20 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
Welcome back to the committee, cabinet secretary. In the past, the committee has taken an interest in and has spoken to you about the issue of mainstreaming cultural spend. Will you say more about what you have done to interest other parts of Government and the public sector in the importance of culture? For example, I am thinking about the national health service and town planning. Have you been able to advance the argument that, in the longer term, spending on culture saves in many other areas?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 20 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
You mentioned that one of the challenges that you face has been to establish the UK Government’s intentions on consequentials in the area. Will you say a bit more about that and how it is affecting what you are doing?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 20 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
You mentioned the challenges that the culture sector has faced throughout Covid. Have those challenges changed? At an earlier stage, the committee would have been hearing about how to shift much of the culture sector online and do things differently. Now, perhaps, the demand is about how to move things back offline and get people back to events and live performances. Does the budget have to be agile enough to cope with the situation and, if so, how does it manage the changing priorities around culture as we come through Covid?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 19 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
My question is perhaps for Robin Gourlay and Mary Brennan.
We have touched on international examples and you have said that there are some success stories in Scotland. There are examples of countries that have managed to turn around their food culture. In Scotland, people raise lots of questions about the need to teach people to cook—I do not exempt myself from that criticism. There are big questions about whether a culture is developing that dissuades children and young people from going outside, seeing the environment around them and exercising, or certainly doing so unsupervised. Are there countries that can teach us about such things?
Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 19 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
We have talked a bit about the kind of things that can be done to make sure that our aspirations in the area become a reality. As the bill develops, the monitoring of policies takes on an importance. Given that what is in the plan is as important as what is in the bill, do we need to see what is in the plan? Do we need systems of monitoring that are attuned to what is in the plan and to learn from what is in it? That question is perhaps for Mr Gourlay.
10:15Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
Meeting date: 19 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
I have a final question for Mr Ogle and Mr Gourlay. The issue has been touched on already, and I do not want to overestimate the abilities of parliamentarians or underestimate the abilities of experts but, over and above existing bodies, is there a question about whether the scrutiny—rather than the monitoring—of the success of policies should be done by elected or unelected bodies?
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Meeting date: 13 January 2022
Alasdair Allan
Returning to the issue of policy coherence and what we all understand that to mean, in the past, many people in the Parliament, the Government and elsewhere have talked about mainstreaming interest and involvement in the work of the Government’s international development department across all parts of Government and the public sector.
Where do you think that we have reached on that agenda, whether on practical issues, such as how we distribute surplus equipment or how we involve different areas of Government in that enterprise, or, more broadly, on awareness in different parts of Government and the public sector of the importance of work in Malawi and elsewhere? I put that question first to David Hope-Jones and then to Lewis Ryder-Jones.