Chamber and committees

I have a small supplementary question on the practicalities of moving animals.

Cathy Dwyer said that it was difficult to get animals from, say, Orkney to wherever they are going in the rest of the UK. How will the Animal Welfare Commission ensure that we have shortened food supply chains when somebody does not finish an animal in the north and it needs to go to lower land? Will you look at that from an animal welfare point of view or from a food supply chain point of view? We all advocate shorter food supply chains.

I put that question to Pete Goddard; I am sorry that it was so long.

I have a supplementary question. Do you want me to ask my other questions at the same time?

You have pre-empted my next question, because I wanted to ask what joint working there would be, involving the national food strategy and DEFRA. Henry Dimbleby’s report, which I read last night, is very much based on a whole-system approach to food as opposed to the rather narrow approach of a good food nation. How can the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill be effective if we do not look at it alongside other current and future legislation? For example, if we want to have good, resilient, local food supply chains but we do not know what a future agriculture bill will say, how can we ensure that policies are created that allow farmers to reduce their environmental impact and create good, local, accessible food for people and local authorities? That will not happen right across Scotland, because not all farmers are producing food to finish.

In effect, you are saying that, if they get it wrong, voters will be able to vote them out, but they cannot vote out the Scottish ministers for introducing a bill that does not contain the ability for local authorities, through the guidance of the Scottish ministers, to set targeted policies, implementation plans, success indicators and reporting arrangements.

On the convener’s point about pre-legislative consultation with public bodies, the fact is that things have changed since the initial consultation was carried out. Mr Burgess mentioned procurement through local authorities and public bodies, but I note that that used to come under European Union legislation, which meant, for example, that there was no requirement to state the country of origin. If there is no pre-legislative consultation, how will we be able to create a good, effective piece of legislation that encourages further public procurement of Scottish produce?

The same would apply, perhaps, to the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.

Okay. I will leave it there.

I do not think that that is clear, but the committee can discuss the matter and dig down into it a little further.

Mr Burgess, it sounds as though the bill is putting the onus on local authorities to produce the good food nation plan—you have mentioned local authorities a lot. Have you considered the expertise that will be needed in local authorities? Nutritional experts will be needed to produce these reports, and it will involve local supply chain and logistics expertise. Have you considered these and all the other things that the Government is expecting local authorities to do without a specific budget?

Let me drill down into that, because it is specific to the framework. You are saying that the Scottish ministers have a responsibility to give local authorities expertise and guidance, so who will create these reports and who will be accountable? How is that reflected in this first stage of the framework?