Chamber and committees

We have about 15 minutes left. Sandesh Gulhane has some questions on food safety, after which Stephanie Callaghan wants to come in on the proposed public health (restriction of promotions) bill that has been mentioned. We might struggle to bring in any more members.

As promised, we move to our final theme and to questions from Stephanie Callaghan on the Public Health (Restriction of Promotions) Bill.

Okay, thank you.

We will get Paul’s microphone unmuted and ask him to declare his interests again.

Thank you very much.

I will bring in Evelyn Tweed, who wants to pick up on something that was said.

Before I go to Emma Harper, Evelyn Tweed wants to come back in with a quick supplementary question.

Welcome back. The fourth item on our agenda is an evidence session with Food Standards Scotland. I welcome Heather Kelman, who is its chair, and Geoff Ogle, who is its chief executive. Heather—I believe that you want to make an opening statement.

Of course, a lot of those foods do not need to be cooked, and people might be unable to afford to put on their gas or electricity.

Geoff, before I allow my colleagues to come in, Heather said that you had some information about the impact of the war in Ukraine, which I mentioned. Can you talk about that?

That is another thing that we see, to a certain extent, with energy prices. The trading prices of energy come down a bit, but that is not passed on to the consumer. Similarly, there is an increase in food costs, and I guess that there might be some reluctance to bring the prices down in line with any of the inputs.