Chamber and committees

We will move on to questions on the purpose, scope and content of the bill.

There was a suggestion in some consultation feedback that we should refer not to private business but to enterprise. Was there any consideration of including large-scale private sector business enterprises in the bill?

Thank you. We will move to questions. Mr Burgess, I understand that you will field the questions and direct them to the appropriate official. I appreciate that.

I will kick off with a question on the pre-legislative consultation. As you said, the good food nation policy has been in development since 2009. In 2017, the Scottish food commission made recommendations on a bill and on other aspects of food policy, then issues were raised in the consultation on the bill. Among the issues were whether the bill would deal with public health, food insecurity, provenance and local procurement of food, food waste and food education. To what extent have those recommendations been included in the bill? If they have not been included, why have they not?

Should the Parliament not play a role in deciding what those functions are, to ensure that its concerns are addressed, rather than leave it to the Government’s discretion to decide which functions will fall under the requirement of paying due regard to the good food nation plans? I know that lists are dangerous because, often, it is not what is included in a list but what is not included in it that is important. We have provision for secondary legislation that might address that at some point, but is there not an argument for the bill specifying some of those functions rather than waiting for secondary legislation? When is it likely that secondary legislation will be introduced on that?

The Parliament might decide that the nutrition of elderly people is important and that we want it to be a principle of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill that is always referred to when anything emerges that might have an impact on it, but the Government might not suggest that as one of its specified functions. Why is there not an opportunity for the specified functions to be laid out in the primary legislation and, potentially, added to in the secondary legislation?

Although we understand that legislation is required to necessitate public bodies to produce a plan, it is not required for the Government to publish a plan. Are there practical implications in that regard? Does that potentially change the purpose of the bill?

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the ninth meeting in session 6 of the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee. I remind members who are using electronic devices to switch them to silent mode.

Our first item of business is an evidence session on the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill with Scottish Government officials. I welcome George Burgess, who is the deputy director in food and drink; Ashley Cooke, who is the head of food policy; James Hamilton, who is a solicitor; and Tracy McCollin, who is the head of the bill team.

I invite George Burgess to make some opening remarks.

We all understand that the food and drink sector of the economy is complex, as are health and social care and other sectors. One of the responses to the consultation suggests that the area is too complex to be assessed only by key performance indicators and that there needs to be a far broader understanding of how the system works and how we can deliver the cultural change that Jim Fairlie mentioned.

How does the Scottish Government intend to oversee how effectively public bodies are performing? How will the Scottish Government expect to be judged on its performance? Will that be through KPIs? Will the Scottish Government oversee public bodies? If so, does that suggest that we need an independent body to oversee the Scottish Government?

What do you envisage that that process will be? When you set that out, how did you envisage that local authorities will go through a self-assessment process to ensure that they are fulfilling the desired outcomes?

You suggest that local authorities are held to account because of the electoral cycle. How does that apply to health boards?

Is there a gap in the bill in relation to how the health authorities will judge or self-assess their responses to the good food nation plans that they put in place?