Seòmar agus comataidhean

As a committee, we recommended, following our deliberations on the national planning framework, that local councillors should be able to turn down planning applications on the basis of health. Would you support that?

Good morning, and welcome to the third meeting in 2023 of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. I have received apologies from Tess White.

Before we commence this morning’s meeting, we have a change of membership to inform everyone about. Carol Mochan has left the committee and will be replaced by Paul Sweeney. I thank Carol Mochan for all the work that she has done on the committee in the past couple of years and wish her all the best in whatever is next for her committee-wise.

Our first item today is to welcome Paul Sweeney to the committee and to invite the new member to declare any interests that are relevant to the committee’s remit.

The second item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 5 and 6 in private. Are members agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Does Evelyn Tweed want to come back in?

The whole idea of corporate social responsibility is really important, particularly given what you have said about the price rises being lower for certain foods and higher for others. That almost seems counterintuitive, given the processes that there might be for high-fat and high-sugar items. I get that fresh food does not last long on the shelves, but that is having an impact on consumers. In particular, it will have an impact on more vulnerable groups, such as children, older people and people in socially deprived areas. Thank you for highlighting that.

The next item on our agenda is an oral evidence session with Cricket Scotland and sportscotland. This is an opportunity to receive an update on those organisations’ progress towards implementing the recommendations of the independent review into racism in Scottish cricket, and it is the second such meeting that we have had. I think that the last one was around October last year.

I welcome Kaukab Stewart, who is not a committee member. She is attending for this item, and I hope that we will be able to give Kaukab the opportunity to ask some questions after members have asked questions of the panel.

I welcome to the committee Gordon Arthur, the chief executive officer of Cricket Scotland, and Anjan Luthra, the chair of Cricket Scotland. We also have with us Forbes Dunlop, the chief executive officer of sportscotland. Welcome to you all, and thank you for making the time to come back. Anjan Luthra will make a brief opening statement.

Thank you very much, Heather. A lot of our members want to speak to you about EU exit in detail and how that is impacting on the standards of, and access to, food.

I want to take us to other events of the past year. There have been some significant global events, including the conflict in Ukraine, which is a major supplier of food to Europe, the UK and beyond. The cost of living has increased dramatically, and inflation is 9 per cent and was 10 per cent; it has come down slightly—not that you would know from the price of food in the supermarkets. How are the supply chain issues that are being caused by the conflict in Ukraine, by EU exit and by the cost of living impacting on families who are finding it difficult to access good-quality food? How are you reprioritising your work around those issues? What impact is that having? How are you responding?

I would like to ask a follow-up question about Covid testing. Free tests are no longer being funded by the UK Government. I believe that, at the moment, we have 1,200 patients in hospital with Covid. Is the fact that our population is not able to test for Covid for free having an impact on the number of people in hospital with Covid just now?

Thank you. Colleagues, I am aware that a couple of members need to leave before 12 o’clock. I am tempted to move our theme on NHS estate and sustainability forward to allow members to do that. I will go to Gillian Mackay first and then Tess White. I will then revert to our schedule.

Thank you. I did not mean to put you in an awkward position by asking for the figures—I know that you cannot give those until you make the statement. However, it is helpful to mention yesterday’s announcement. It would be strange if we had not mentioned the additional funding that is coming forth to deal with winter pressures.

I want to take you back to the emergency budget review. Some tough decisions had to be made in order to fund the pay offer that has been made to NHS staff. I believe that the offer is, on average, 7.5 per cent, which is a great deal higher than other offers in the United Kingdom. Questions have to be asked about that. You had to take funding from certain other areas to fund that offer. I want to know how those decisions were made, so maybe you can take me through that. How has the Scottish Government been able to make that increased offer to Scottish NHS staff when such an offer has not been made in the rest of the UK? How can we afford it?