Chamber and committees

I am a partner in the organic farming business of J Halcro-Johnston & Sons, I am the owner of a croft and I am a member of NFU Scotland and Scottish Land & Estates.

I have a very quick question, in the light of what Kate Forbes said. Gilly Mendes Ferreira said that someone who is concerned that another person is selling a puppy illegally should walk away and report that. Who do they report that to? Is there a central number?

Is that the only number that they should go to? Should they not go to trading standards?

Do you think that the awareness of what you can do and the fact that people can come to you, the police or trading standards is out there among the public?

I will come in on the points that were made. The Government is very good at saying, “This is how much we spent”, rather than, “This is the outcome of what we have spent.” We have been talking about multiyear funding. One of the issues is not just about how many years something will take, even when we have seen projects that have had extended deadlines; it is about the criteria not being set up in the right way. For example, on the rural and islands housing funds, the process was meant to take a year, and that was extended, but the money still has not been utilised.

How important is it for the Government to get the criteria right in the first instance? If we have a limited budget, we have to make sure that the money is being used, and too much of it at the moment seems to be underutilised.

Good morning to the minister and his colleagues. I make it clear that I was pleased to support the winning Cromarty Firth bid.

A number of the issues that I was looking to raise have been covered; I will address a couple of things that colleagues have raised. In response to the convener’s questions, you talked about the role of infrastructure such as new schools, hospitals and housing, which will be vital to accommodate the new people and new jobs that we hope will come to freeport areas and will probably be vital to the success of freeports. You suggested that such infrastructure is a local government responsibility, and we know that local government is under severe financial pressure in delivering the services that it provides already. As a Government, how will you ensure that such services can be developed, given their importance to the project as a whole?

Is there a specific vehicle for doing that? Obviously, some of the resources that will be needed further down the track will need to be delivered through the decisions that are being made now and the consultations that are being held now, whether those are on the structure that we have just talked about or infrastructure such as the A9, which we know is considerably behind schedule. Is there a specific group that is working on that?

Therefore, if there were movement on either side on, for example, a need to change the situation, that is where it would be brought up and taken forward.

Will that operate on a Scotland-wide model, or will it look at, for example, displacement of jobs from the periphery of the freeports, such as within 100 miles or 50 miles?

That is all fine. You talk about working in partnership, but with whom? Hospitals, schools and houses have to be built. If the money is not there to build them, how do they get built? How will you as a Government work with Highland Council, in the case of Cromarty Firth, to ensure that additional resources are available as you hope that they will be?