Chamber and committees

Again, it is not in the bill because we have committed to introducing it as part of the human rights legislation. It is not legally impossible for us to introduce a right to food, but we have decided that the human rights bill is the place to include it.

James Hamilton might want to add something.

I hope that I have outlined some of that in the vision that I articulated in my opening comments. In essence, a good food nation is one in which everyone is knowledgeable about food, knows where their food comes from and appreciates it. It is vital that people can access healthy, locally produced food that is produced in an environmentally sustainable way. It is about access to that knowledge and understanding. Everybody in Scotland should have a right to that.

You make a really important point. It is important to focus on what the bill is actually setting out to do and what it will enable us to do. It provides a legislative framework for and an underpinning of the work that we are already undertaking. The detail of what we hope to achieve and how we will deliver on our good food nation ambitions will be in the good food nation plans, while the bill itself provides the framework and legislative underpinning for those plans. You are absolutely right to make that point. It is important that we focus on what exactly the bill will do. A lot of the points that have been raised are matters for discussion with regard to some of the other policies that we are considering or the good food nation plans themselves.

There will be a consultation on the development of the draft plans. As the bill is set out at the moment, there is the opportunity for periodic review of the plans, which would take place every two years, and we would have to report on that. What we have set out in the bill provides that opportunity for scrutiny, but, of course, I will not prejudge or pre-empt the committee’s stage 1 consideration of all the evidence that you have heard. I will be happy to look at the report when it is published and hear any recommendations that the committee has.

That is the thing. It is hard because, as we have discussed, everybody is at a different stage. Without knowing the detail of what is going to be in local authority plans, it is not possible to quantify things at this stage, but the on-going discussion that we have been having with local authorities and COSLA will be important as we see what, if any, extra resource will be required. Some local authorities already have that built in through the food-related work that they have been doing, and you have cited an example. There is also the funding that has already been allocated to local authorities to support food-related matters, such as free school meals. We would have an on-going dialogue to identify any challenges regarding the implementation of the plans.

You are absolutely right. I took away from the evidence the point about the importance of flexibility, as everyone will have a different starting point. For example, the local authorities from which the committee heard—Argyll and Bute Council and East Ayrshire Council—have undertaken the journey and are a lot further along the road. They talked about the importance of flexibility, because it has been slightly easier in some respects for some local authorities than it will be for others to meet our good food nation ambitions. It is important that there is flexibility in relation to the plans in order to enable local authorities to establish outcomes that are meaningful for them.

It might have been Jayne Jones from Argyll and Bute Council—forgive me if I have got that wrong—who said that, if we were to set a target of 60 per cent for Scottish food in local authority procurement, although that might be okay for some councils, it would be an enormous challenge for others. The provisions that we have set out in the bill provide flexibility in that respect and allow local circumstances to be recognised.

If that is the DPLR Committee’s recommendation, I will, of course, consider it.

They could all be. I met the Scottish Food Coalition recently, as well as having read its evidence to the committee. All the targets and measures that the SFC has talked about are critical and are areas that we would look to address. However, as I have said, we want to set out outcomes in the national plan, which is where we would look to address a lot of those issues. As was highlighted in the evidence, there are a lot of targets out there. We need to collate those targets, but what I am particularly interested in, and what is critical, is how we deliver on the outcomes.

We are taking forward the commitment and that detailed piece of work is at an early stage. I will keep the committee updated as the work progresses.

Because of all the groundwork that has been done for the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill. It was unfortunate that, in the previous session of Parliament, the bill’s introduction was delayed. It was a case of trying to introduce it at the earliest possible opportunity.

It is also about giving effect to the right to food. Although the right to food will be incorporated into Scots law through the human rights bill, it is vital that we have introduced the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill, so that there is a framework that underpins the work that we are doing to deliver our good food nation ambitions. We should not delay that process.