Chamber and committees

I thank Brian Whittle for that intervention. The thrust of my speech is around us seeking a way to passport that learning and experience across the country. The local food strategy and moving towards being a good food nation will do exactly that.

On receiving the Soil Association’s gold award for the 12th successive year, Andrew Kennedy, head of facilities and property management of East Ayrshire Council, said:

“Since 2008, East Ayrshire Council has recognised the connections between what we eat and learning, how food helps with our health and how we can support our local producers. We invest in the food on the plate and the value it has, with good quality sustainable meals now the norm in East Ayrshire. Our approach also plays an important role in community wealth building ... for which the Council has received funding to develop Scotland’s first regional approach to CWB through the Ayrshire Growth Deal. ... This means that we are committed to continuing to work with local businesses to support the local economy and to reduce our carbon footprint by continuing to source fresh local produce.”

During the height of the pandemic, East Ayrshire Council retained its school food contracts to ensure that local suppliers did not go under, and every week delivered a staggering 30,000 freshly prepared meals to families who were in receipt of free school meals. At Christmas, boxes also included an East Ayrshire gift card for each child, which gave a boost to local businesses by encouraging families to shop locally.

I turn my attention to a recent news story that emerged when local dairy business Mossgiel Organic Farm in Mauchline in my constituency won the milk contract for East Ayrshire Council. That contract not only supports the farm to grow, but has a huge benefit in terms of carbon and single-use plastics reduction. By installing refillable milk vending machines in every school and delivering supplies via an on-going move to an electric fleet, it is estimated that there will be a whopping reduction of approximately 400,000 pieces of single-use plastic from East Ayrshire primary schools every year.

Farmer Bryce Cunningham of Mossgiel now joins other Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley producers, including We Hae Meat in Girvan, A & A Spittal of Auchinleck and Corrie Mains Farm of Mauchline, in capturing the hearts and bellies of weans across East Ayrshire. I am sure that others will agree that that is fantastic news and a model for replication where possible, in order to aid our growth as a good food nation.

Whether it is local sustainable eggs, poultry, pork, beef, fish, cheese, milk or dry goods, Scotland’s food and drink sector has much to offer our anchor organisations. In many areas just now, we have Scottish Government supported community wealth building initiatives, including—as a Scottish first—as part of our Ayrshire regional growth deal. In order to support the sector and our communities to recover from Covid and the uncertainties of Brexit, it is vital that we ensure that the learning and examples from those pilots are shared across the country.

As has been said already, there is no doubt that procurement is tricky and is often mired in seemingly unchangeable bureaucracy, but strong leadership and a compelling and urgent case for change can focus hearts and minds. From farm and sea to plate, let us make it local.

I will shift the gears a little and move on to the planning system. How have regional planning issues been accounted for in the development of the national planning framework 4, given that planning authorities have not yet had time to develop their full regional spatial strategies and that the pandemic has exacerbated that situation a little?

Good morning. Touching on what you have just talked about, I think that we have seen a huge shift in focus from processes to outcomes, and we in local government have learned lots of lessons over the past year and a half. In fact, local government has significantly changed its practices and has responded and adapted very quickly.

Antony Clark has already highlighted the digital issue, but can you give us some more examples of how local government adapted and changed quickly? Will this spirit of innovation and partnership involving local government and other partners and sectors continue so that we do not slip back into the old ways of working?

I will follow on from Mark Griffin’s question. Is there any evidence of councils using their equality impact assessments to look through a gendered lens at the decisions they make that affect women? We know that women are, by and large, in precarious employment and are often the most affected—as Elma Murray outlined—by such decisions. Looking back over the last little while, are we seeing evidence that councils are taking that proactive approach?

Thank you for that answer—I will follow up on it. With the £3 million for Ayrshire, and in the other pilot areas that you mentioned, there is money to support local government through the creation of community wealth building officer posts and so on. When we are looking to passport learning and best practice across the country, will there be support from the Scottish Government to ensure that all local authorities will be able to avail themselves of the creation of such posts within their services?

How will the spatial strategy and planning policies that are to be set out in NPF4 help to deliver the Scottish Government’s emissions reduction commitments?

I have another question, which touches on your earlier comments about community wealth building. As you will be aware, the Ayrshire growth deal included £3 million from the Scottish Government to directly support a regional community wealth building model. How will the Scottish Government support councils and other anchor organisations to take a community wealth building approach in order to aid our Covid recovery and move to a wellbeing economy model?

What is the commission’s view generally on the mainstreaming of participatory budgeting and community empowerment? Also, what are the risks around the transparency, accountability and resourcing of these important workstreams and policy areas?

I refer to my entry in the register of members’ interests. I am a serving councillor on East Ayrshire Council.

A vast amount of work has been undertaken over the past few years by COSLA, the Scottish Government and partners towards creating a new fit-for-purpose fiscal framework, and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy is calling for a rules-based approach. What do you think a functioning fiscal framework between the two spheres of government would look like and will it be taken forward as part of the local governance review?

I have been contacted by immunosuppressed constituents who have received both doses of the Covid vaccine but are concerned that, due to the medication that they take following organ transplant, they will not produce sufficient antibodies to protect against the virus.

What consideration has the Scottish Government given to providing antibody tests to immunosuppressed people, to ascertain the effectiveness of vaccination? Will further guidance be issued to that vulnerable group as restrictions continue to be lifted?