Contents
- Attendance
- Subordinate Legislation
- Scrutiny of NHS Boards (NHS Borders)
Subordinate Legislation
National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 (SSI 2019/50)
Good morning and welcome to the Health and Sport Committee’s eighth meeting in 2019. I ask everyone in the room please to ensure that their mobile phones are off or set to silent and not to use mobile devices for photography or recording of proceedings. We have received apologies from David Stewart and Sandra White. Bob Doris is attending as a substitute member, and I also welcome Christine Grahame.
Agenda item 1 is consideration of four instruments that are subject to negative procedure. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the first instrument, SSI 2019/50, at its meeting on 26 February, when it determined that it did not need to draw the Parliament’s attention to the regulations on any grounds that are in its remit. As members have no comments, does the committee agree to make no recommendations on the regulations?
Members indicated agreement.
Food and Feed Safety and Hygiene (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 (SSI 2019/52)
SSI 2019/52, SSI 2019/53 and SSI 2019/54 relate to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Under the protocol that has been agreed between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament, at our previous meeting we considered the categorisation and procedure for dealing with the instruments. Last week, we agreed that it was appropriate that each instrument had been laid under the negative procedure and given a categorisation of low significance.
I ask for comments on SSI 2019/52. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the regulations on 5 March and determined that it did not need to draw the Parliament’s attention to them on any grounds that are in its remit. As there are no comments, does the committee agree to make no recommendations on the regulations?
Members indicated agreement.
Food Composition, Labelling and Standards (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 (SSI 2019/53)
The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the regulations at its meeting on 26 February and determined that it did not need to draw the Parliament’s attention to them on any grounds that are in its remit. Do members have comments?
I understand that the regulations will make minor and technical amendments, but they made me think about the consideration of food labelling and standards in future, especially given that we read a paragraph about the origin of meat from certain countries. As we move forward with trade deals and negotiations, my concern is to ensure that our food products, standards and labelling requirements are not compromised.
Absolutely—that reflects a point that you made when we first considered the regulations last week. It is fair to say that the amendments do not directly bear on the issues that you raise, but it would be entirely appropriate for us to write to the minister—while supporting the regulations, if that is the committee’s view—to ask for a general update on the protection of Scottish beef and other designations. Would that meet your needs?
Yes. My concern is about how labelling might change and about protecting our produce in any future trade negotiations.
The clerks have noted that and we will ask for assurances from the Government. As there are no more comments, does the committee agree to make no recommendations on the regulations?
Members indicated agreement.
That is fine—we will write an accompanying letter.
Nutrition (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 (SSI 2019/54)
The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the regulations at its meeting on 5 March and determined that it did not need to draw the Parliament’s attention to them. As members have no comments, does the committee agree to make no recommendations on the regulations?
Members indicated agreement.
That disposes of all the statutory instruments.
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Attendance