The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 1553 contributions
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Karen Adam
Good morning, panel. The meeting has been absolutely fascinating, and I appreciate what Professor Miller said, because we need to get to the core of the disconnection and the feeling of disenfranchisement. What exactly are the obligations, and what would they look like in practice? My questions centre around that issue.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 17 May 2023
Karen Adam
It is clarty. [Laughter.] That is one of those interesting questions. It depends, to an extent, on farmer behaviour. I would much rather that people were not buying animals in from areas with TB, but I recognise why some people do that. It also depends on our surveillance systems picking it up quickly, and, when it is picked up, on the appropriate control measures, such as the isolation of animals, being put in place.
Hand on heart, I think that it is unlikely that we will get an acute flare-up, but, as we saw last year, it only takes one farm with disease, which had probably been there, undetected, for a year or 18 months. It seeded disease to another 18 farms, I think, that we traced, of which seven or eight were positive. It is not impossible. What matters is that, when we find it, we deal with it robustly and quickly. Part of what we do is trace backwards and forwards. When we find an animal that is infected, we immediately go back to find out where it has been and what it has been in contact with, to determine where the disease may have come from. That involves testing a range of herds. We also look at any cattle that have left that farm, and we test them and the herd that they are in.
So, it is not impossible, but it is unlikely. That is probably as much as I can say.
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Karen Adam
I thank the witnesses for their evidence so far. I will ask about the post-racing life of greyhounds. Last week, we heard from the GBGB, which noted that it contributes towards the costs of rehoming, for example. However, it is a different set-up at Thornton, where more dogs tend to come from homes that they live in, whereas, for GBGB tracks, the dogs are in kennels.
I ask the witnesses to give an overview of the post-racing life of a greyhound and the differences between those two models. Are there any huge differences and any cons?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 3 May 2023
Karen Adam
I will focus for a moment on how the dogs at Thornton are kept. Is there a secure way of collecting data on the post-racing life of those greyhounds when it comes to injuries, their behaviours and their quality of life?
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Karen Adam
I was going to ask about free bus travel and the positive impacts that that could have on people, but you have clearly stated your point on that matter, which is noted.
11:00Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Meeting date: 2 May 2023
Karen Adam
Thank you, convener, and good morning, panellists. Thank you so much for your contributions so far, which align with what I will ask about. I want to focus on solutions. Asylum and immigration policy is a reserved matter, but there are things that we can do within our devolved competence at the Scottish Parliament. Although we are fiscally constrained in many ways, there are things that we can do. What are your feelings about the new Scots strategy and the ending destitution together strategy? What is going well? What is not going so well?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Karen Adam
How does that behaviour manifest itself? I know that they would be stressed—that is the emotion—but what behaviour is displayed?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Karen Adam
A lot of my questions have been answered during the session, so I might throw in a wild-card question—it is not too wild, convener.
Having heard all the evidence thus far, I want to touch on what Kate Rowell said about France spending a bit more on food. That got me thinking that energy costs and commuting costs in France might not be as high as they are in our everyday lives. A report might need to be commissioned to find out why more is spent on food there and why we often cannot pay more.
The constant dichotomy between profitability and affordability keeps coming up all the time. We might want to focus more on a health and wellbeing economy in which low-carbon foods are encouraged, perhaps with a levy on produce with a high-carbon footprint. That would mean that imported produce that would generally be cheaper might cost more because of its higher carbon footprint, whereas local produce would have a lower carbon footprint. Perhaps some Government support could be provided for low-carbon produce. We could flip the position around and focus on a health and wellbeing economy in which we consider the environment, good mental health and local food production with great employee benefits.
Fishing and ports were also mentioned. There are quite high costs for people landing their fish in the north-east—
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Karen Adam
I am sorry—I am trying to wrap things up. If we focused on a health and wellbeing economy rather than just profits, would that make a big difference to the industry and to what we do?
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Meeting date: 26 April 2023
Karen Adam
We have spoken a lot about the regulations. Can you tell me a bit more about the differences between the regulations in Scotland and in England and say what effects the regulations have had on animal welfare?