Hansard

I am pleased to speak in today’s debate on the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill, which provides an opportunity to address some of the key issues that we face as a nation today. Before I cover that, I would like to thank my colleagues on the RAINE Committee for the time and effort that they put into the bill. I also thank all those who gave evidence, and the clerks, who supported our work most magnificently throughout the process of bringing the bill to the chamber for debate today—it comes after six years of waiting but, thank goodness, we are here now.

I also thank the Scottish Government for meeting me to discuss some of the amendments that I proposed and to work towards a shared approach to important additions to the bill, such as the amendments on inclusive communication and matters to be taken into account in preparing plans. I know that the cabinet secretary will be disappointed that she cannot be here today, but I am sure that we all send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to action.

As I said, the bill is an opportunity. The amendments that I moved yesterday will, I hope, help Scotland to move towards becoming a healthier nation that understands food, where it comes from and how it impacts our bodies, communities and environment. The bill is also an opportunity to address inequalities, overhaul procurement strategies, and support our fantastic food and farming industry, from producers to purveyors, and enable it to play a leading role in helping Scotland to become a fantastic good food nation.

As I said in the committee at stages 1 and 2, we know that Scotland is not a healthy nation.

Presiding Officer, I keep looking at the screen, expecting Mairi Gougeon to be there, but she is not. However, I have George Adam in front of me, although I am not going to look at him now.

Sixty-five per cent of our adult population is overweight or obese, and that figure will continue to rise without intervention from the Government. Malnourishment has been highlighted as a key issue that the Scottish Government must do more to address and, during the evidence sessions, the stakeholders favoured education on healthy eating. As always, we know that the bill will not be a magic bullet that will miraculously and suddenly solve all those issues, but it clearly has potential to start addressing issues in earnest.

The theme of healthy eating in addressing poor health outcomes relating to diet shone through in many of the amendments in yesterday’s stage 3 proceedings, and I was, to be quite frank, a bit shocked that the Government opposed a number of amendments that sought to address that issue.

The bill could have established

“an integrated food policy, tackling the health, social and environmental impacts of food.”

It could have obliged the Scottish Government to

“reform procurement law to oblige public kitchens to source food from more small local businesses and organic producers.”

It could have obliged the Government to

“fund local emergency food and food resilience networks, ensuring everyone can access good food in times of crisis.”

If any of those points sound familiar, it is because they are straight from the Green Party’s manifesto. That is the same Green Party that shamelessly decided to vote against some of the crucial amendments that would have delivered those aims. The philosophical inconsistency and outright duplicity of its voting record yesterday were palpable. Nonetheless, my party will continue to do the right thing by calling for those important issues to be addressed.

I turn to one of the key points that I mentioned. When our national health service is under such sustained pressure, tackling obesity—an issue that has led to a higher number of Covid deaths and a prevalence of chronic diseases that sap our NHS resources and lower productivity—should be a priority for Scotland at every opportunity. We need to throw everything at tackling the issue. Instead, through the bill, the Government decided to kick the can down the line. According to Obesity Action Scotland, the wider economic cost of not addressing the issue could be up to £4.6 billion every year, which is almost a third of NHS Scotland’s budget.

Another key issue in the bill is tackling malnourishment by ensuring that children have access to nutritious food, but amendments that sought to address that issue were rejected by the Government. I was grateful to Opposition members for their support; I was very pleased to be working with Labour and Liberal Democrat members who had similar intentions. I have spoken a lot about the opportunities that the bill presented. However, despite our best efforts, those opportunities have been missed. I specifically thank Monica Lennon and Beatrice Wishart for working so collegiately on some of those issues.

I will touch on school breakfasts, which are an integral part of the bill and on which Brian Whittle and I lodged amendments. I ask the cabinet secretary—if she can hear me—why her Government has not laid plans on a timescale for the provision of breakfasts for children in primary and special schools. I would like to know why her party is not delivering on its manifesto pledge to pilot the provision of free school breakfasts in secondary schools. That is part of the party’s DNA and was part of its manifesto, so the Government should be delivering on it. That needs to happen as soon as possible.

Nonetheless, I will finish on a more positive note. The cynic in many of us might have worried that the bill might end up being nothing more than a box-ticking exercise for the Government. However, as amended, the bill will amount to something a little bit more than that. We have worked across the parties to agree to some very important amendments that will allow the bill to fulfil some of the aims that I have discussed. I do not feel that the bill has been perfectly allowed to fulfil its potential, though, so we must step up our game to deliver the changes that are needed in this country.