Chamber and committees

So, you do not currently have a view on the independence of the body.

We have heard concerns that food workers, in particular, are facing food poverty. The people who are producing our food are often not able to afford it themselves. I do not think that any of us wants to see that or the buck being just passed back and forth between different agencies or levels of government. Therefore, it would be good to have a clear commitment from the Government—today, if possible—that you want to see collective bargaining rights for food workers and to see them being paid a real living wage.

The right could also be in the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill, if you wanted it to be.

A cynic might worry that the Scottish Government is looking to capitalise on warm words around the bill without delivering the right to food in practice. How would you reassure such a person that there is a serious commitment to having a right to food in Scots law?

Will the human rights bill refer explicitly to the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill, so that there is a link between the right to food in the human rights bill and the good food nation plans?

Thank you.

I would like to get some clarification on the right to food. It sounds as though you are saying that you support there being a right to food in Scots law, that the issue is only the vehicle through which that is introduced, and that it would be more appropriate to include such a right in the human rights bill that will be introduced later in the parliamentary session. I apologise if this is an obvious question, but can a right to food be specified in only one place?

To clarify, does that mean that it would not be possible for the right to food to also be in this bill, or is it just a preference? I am trying to establish whether the issue involves a legal technicality or a political choice.

On the topic of targets, we heard from the Scottish Food Coalition that it would like to see high-level targets in the bill around things such as a living wage, collective bargaining rights for food workers by 2025, and the halving of childhood obesity and food waste by 2030. I appreciate that you have just talked about targets in the bill and said that the national plan will need to set out indicators and measures. Do you agree that targets such as those suggested by the Scottish Food Coalition should be included in those indicators and measures?

May I briefly bring us back to the right to food? The cabinet secretary and James Hamilton said that it would be more effective to have such a right in a human rights bill, as opposed to the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill. However, at this stage, you cannot confirm that a right to food in the human rights bill will explicitly link to the good food nation plan—I understand that that is just to do with how the legislative process works. Why have you chosen to introduce the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill before you introduce the human rights bill?