Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 22 March 2022
Thank you, Presiding Officer.
You Can Cook, which is based in Peebles in the Borders, offers classes, demonstrations, talks and workshops on food and health-related issues all over Scotland. It has found that half of Scottish children from urban areas think that oranges grow in Scotland and that 70 per cent think that cotton comes from sheep. I have long championed food and countryside education. It is vital that we use the bill to educate people on the importance of good local food and how to reduce food waste.
I will move on because time is short. There must be effective oversight of the good food nation policy and accountability for the statutory good food nation plans. Scottish Environment LINK said in its submission on the bill that the lack of an oversight function
“means that a vital piece of the jigsaw is missing”
and that that
“risks the effectiveness of this legislation in driving the changes that are urgently needed”.
The Scottish Conservatives agree, as does the committee, that the current oversight provisions in the bill—the requirement to lay all national plans in the Scottish Parliament and to lay a progress report every five years—are insufficient. We will seek to address that at stage 2 with a view to strengthening the oversight function and to providing accountability to Parliament. Furthermore, many stakeholders, including Nourish Scotland and Obesity Action Scotland agree that there is a need for an oversight body. I ask the cabinet secretary for urgent clarity on whether the Scottish Government intends to designate one.
We support the bill at stage 1, but we believe that it is fundamentally lacking in the provisions that are required.
I will end with a quote from Professor Mary Brennan:
“there is great commitment to moving the needle in the right direction, improving our health, social and economic outcomes, and playing our part in improving our environmental outcomes. With careful management, with collaboration and co-creation between the national and local levels and public bodies, and with clarity of purpose on the direction of travel, delivery is possible.”—[Official Report, Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee, 19 January 2022; c 8-9.]
We will seek to strengthen the bill during stage 2.
15:35