Chamber and committees

I have a question for Michael Clancy about the references to the domestic advisory group and civil society forum that he made in his submission. I was not aware of them before, but I note that an advert in the middle of October invited people to register their interest if they wanted to be a member of the UK domestic advisory group and civil society forum. Can you say a little more about that? The bodies are clearly an attempt to broaden involvement from third sector organisations and trade unions, to enable them to have some sort of say in the process, but they have not had a lot of public awareness. You talked about annual meetings not being appropriate, because meetings need to be more regular. Could you say something about the potential opportunities that come from membership and to what extent the bodies have relevance in Scotland? Are they established primarily at a UK level? The advert says that meetings

“will rotate between all four nations of the United Kingdom”.

I was not aware of the domestic advisory group and civil society forum before. Have they gone under the radar for us? Will they be significant?

I have a quick supplementary question to ask David Thomson. You talked about different standards in different parts of the UK impacting negatively on producers. Towards the end of your written submission, you state:

“If one UK nation increased or lowered product standards in their own jurisdiction there might be areas where enhanced protection might, in principle, be desired.”

What did you mean by that?

What do you mean by “enhanced protection”?

To draw a parallel, you have also talked about trade outwith the UK. For example, concerns have been raised about potential new UK trade deals with other parts of the world that have lower environmental standards. How would that impact on UK products? You have mentioned your worries about standards changing in the UK, but what about imports from the rest of world, where the standards might be lower? What about the impact of that on products that are produced here? Are you concerned about that?

Sorry, that was probably my fault. I looked at the comments that you made about the deposit return scheme and I put both witnesses together on the issue of drinks and made assumptions about the kinds of drinks that were involved.

Alison Douglas, can you also comment on the point that I made at the start about different policies in different parts of the UK and the challenges for implementation?

Can you give us examples of other environmental challenges? You have talked about EU moves to ramp up environmental standards; do you have concerns about other products in respect of which the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 could cut right across Scotland’s moves to meet environmental standards, either for nature or net zero reasons?

Thanks for your excellent submissions; they have been helpful.

Michael Clancy, can you say more on the question that we asked about scrutiny, transparency and accountability challenges and how we, as a parliamentary committee, can engage in that area? You have explained the sheer number of potential legislative changes that we might be facing. Could you talk about the capacity of third sector and business organisations to give their views on the process for those changes?

Earlier, we heard that it is difficult for third sector organisations to cope with the scale of change that might take place. That is an issue for this committee, because the parliamentary process enables us to get views from third sector organisations. The issue of timing is important in that regard. Given the time constraints that we face and the sheer complexity of the situation, how can we improve how we take evidence? What would be your top issues? Would the issues of interparliamentary or intergovernmental work be at the top of your agenda?

Thank you—that was very useful. I am particularly interested in the parliamentary and joint ministerial work. A tension arises around transparency when Governments talk together, but I note that there has been no JMC for three years now and the structure has not been replaced with anything else. That is an issue to think about, and I thank you for your evidence on that.

I also note the point made by both Jess Sargeant and the Food and Drink Federation Scotland about the ability of local officials to act on food standards, for example. In a previous answer, Ms Sargeant, you talked about local authorities being able to make decisions on food standards. Can you say a little bit more about that, given that the Food and Drink Federation thought that such a move would be disruptive? Are you suggesting that, even though decisions on food and drink standards—you mentioned chlorinated chicken in that respect—would be made at UK Government level, it would technically be possible for action to be taken at the local level? We had assumed that that might not be the case.

I am quite keen for the operation of that group and its relevance to us to be part of our scrutiny, too. Thank you, Mr Clancy.

I apologise for that; I misread the evidence.