Chamber and committees

That is good to hear, because a change in thinking and mindset underlies a lot of what we have to do in response to the climate and nature emergencies and equalities, and that really has to happen in the training. It will not necessarily just happen in people by themselves. It is therefore good to hear that that is being considered.

Andy—your microphone is too close to your mouth.

For my final question, I want to follow on from Mark Griffin’s earlier question about the process of monitoring and reviewing the NPF. What can trigger a review before the 10 years are up?

That is great to hear.

I will pull back a little and shift to questions on business development. From the SPICe paper, we have learned that the increased capital budget will support

“business viability, competitiveness as well as creating and safeguarding employment in rural areas”.

I would love to hear your thoughts on which areas should be developed in rural and coastal communities. What business development are you looking for?

I have a quick supplementary question on that. You have listed all those great programmes, and it is good to hear that some that were already in place will continue.

Will you take a moment to underscore what business development and support will help us in the just transition? In your opening remarks, you talked about the twin emergencies. Where can people who really want to start taking action around the climate and nature emergencies go? Business development will be critical for that, so it would be great to hear your thoughts on where we should head if we want to start taking action.

Cabinet secretary, the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill and local food strategies will start to come through. Will we need any more funding to enable the food sector to deliver on that bill?

Good morning, cabinet secretary, and thank you for your responses so far. You mentioned the UK Government’s £100 million seafood fund. I understand that funding will be allocated across the UK on a competitive basis. Will you expand on that? I am aware that competitive funding can be challenging—we talk about postcode lotteries and such things. Although the funding sounds like a good idea, what will the impact be on Scotland? You started to touch on that, but I would love to hear a bit more about it.

At a previous committee meeting, in November, we looked at the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 policies. One of the things that stood out for us was a statement on behalf of Scottish ministers that

“the constraints under which Scottish Ministers currently operate, in particular as a result of the working of the UK Internal Market Act, mean that they judge that to align in full at this time would not serve Scotland’s wider interests.”

Although you are beginning to touch on that in some ways, could one of you expand on that? I want to hear about that in connection specifically to the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020. What are the issues to do with the powers that the Scottish ministers have or do not have?

Thank you very much for clarifying that. From my perspective, it is quite concerning in relation to the work that we have to do for Scotland. Other colleagues have outlined that we have a very unique set of circumstances, and the Scottish ministers need to be able to take forward the things that we need for Scotland, including for our island and rural communities.