Seòmar agus comataidhean

I am conscious of the time, so I will stop there.

Inclusion is a great way to tackle racism.

My question might tie in with what Heidi Vistisen said about data. The Scottish Government has data from the active Scotland outcomes indicator equality analysis. It is very complicated. The data shows that 77,000 people in Scotland describe their religion as Muslim and that there are 16,000 Hindus, 13,000 Buddhists and 15,000 from other religions. I will not go on but, when all those groups are combined, they still account for less than 3 per cent of the overall population. It is difficult to take apart all the aggregate data.

Heidi Vistisen talked about the need to engage with and develop folk at the grass-roots level. Is getting in about communities and supporting people to participate in whatever sport they choose what is important?

I was going to mention the Scottish graduate entry medicine programme as a success for us in the recruitment of GPs.

As far as Covid recovery goes, I know that there is not an overnight fix, and the NHS recovery plan progress update says that recovery from the pandemic will take place not in weeks or even months but in years. Therefore, I am interested in hearing your perspectives on Covid recovery. Innovation is being used—for example, NHS Near Me and digital appointments have been part of the recovery—but how do you feel that recovery from the pandemic is affecting remote and island areas specifically? Michael Dickson is nodding, so I will go to him first.

What I am going to ask is similar to what I asked earlier, and I will also come on to uniforms.

What are the particular challenges facing women and girls from ethnic minority groups in participating in sport? Obviously, there are real challenges; it is quite apparent from some of the statistics that have come out that ethnic minority girls and women do not have the opportunity to participate or even engage.

I will go to Ewelina Chin first.

I want to pick up on what Sandesh Gulhane said about social prescribing and third sector and independent organisations. In our social prescribing inquiry, we heard about some great work that is being done in Shetland on engaging people. It is about tackling isolation and loneliness and recognising that those issues are a problem. In turn, that supports mental health. My question is for Michael Dickson. How does each local authority and NHS board interface and engage to support all of that? We know how important our third sector organisations are. I am looking at an RSPB link with nature prescriptions that can help to support people to get outside and tackle isolation and loneliness, and to join groups or whatever. Do you see that happening on the ground?

I am relatively new to the committee, but it is really nice to read a short report.

Good morning. As a nurse, I am always interested in infection control and prevention. Obviously, Covid has really educated people about how we transmit infection. You mentioned Cumbria and the movement of cattle from one side of the border to the other. The proposal is to change the validity period of negative results from 60 days to 30 days, as far as movement is concerned. How will farmers in England know that we have changed processes in Scotland? Is that a concern that we have?

The two farmers I spoke to were very well informed about and quite welcoming of the changes in the consolidation of the regulation, so they did not seem concerned. That is quite welcome.

To go back to what the convener said earlier, we should be proud that Scotland has TB-free status. Biosecurity is about being aware of how diseases spread and what practical measures can be implemented to reduce spread. I am also thinking about other bovine diseases such as Johne’s disease. TB is not the only one.

My perception is that farmers are very aware of how diseases are transmitted and what they need to do to prevent that from happening, and that isolation is part of that. What do you perceive the attitudes of farmers to be? I think that they are doing a great job and that we should be—to go back to the word that the convener used—proud of our producers in Scotland. How do you feel about that?