I have a short, sharp question about the clinicians who are involved in making those treatment determinations. My assumption, which is based on the bill and on listening to the previous witness panel, was that the clinicians would be NHS employees. However, if we look at who can actually make a determination, the list includes doctors, who may not be employed by the health service, and pharmacist prescribers, many of whom work in community pharmacies and are therefore contracted to the NHS for some, but not all, services. What is your opinion on that cohort of healthcare professionals, including advanced nurse prescribers, being determined in law as being able to make treatment determinations?

I do not want to take up an inordinate amount of time because I know that there are lots of questions, but there seems to be a working assumption, given the cohort of staff defined in the bill, that NHS staff will be making the treatment determinations. However, as I said, some of those healthcare professionals do not work for the NHS. For example, we have GPs and pharmacists who are independent contractors. Does that cause you any concern?

That is fine; thank you.

We move to questions from Elena Whitham.

Brian Whittle has a brief supplementary.

Two members wish to ask supplementary questions. We can get both in if they and the witnesses are brief.

Our third agenda item is consideration of SSI 2025/43, the purpose of which is to amend the National Health Service (Common Staffing Method) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, which specify the staffing level and professional judgment tools that must be used as part of the common staffing method for specified kinds of health. No motion to annul has been received in relation to the instrument.

The committee first considered the instrument at its meeting on Tuesday 11 March, when members agreed to invite the cabinet secretary to attend today’s meeting to give evidence on it. I welcome Neil Gray, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, who is joined by, from the Scottish Government, Erin Murphy, who is a policy manager in the nursing and midwifery policy team, and Christopher Thompson, who is a team leader in national workforce planning, guidance and strategy.

I thank the cabinet secretary and his officials for agreeing to attend the meeting at such short notice, and I invite the cabinet secretary to make a brief opening statement.

I thank the witnesses for their attendance and their helpful evidence. We will have a short suspension.

At the committee’s next meeting, we will continue our stage 1 scrutiny of the Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill, taking evidence from the representatives of health and social care partnerships, local government, NHS boards and alcohol and drug partnerships. That concludes the public part of our meeting today.

In the chamber last week, I raised my concerns about the risks of the proposal for an English whisky geographical indication, and I asked how the Government is protecting the value of provenance in the Scottish food and drink industry. I welcomed the cabinet secretary’s reassurance that this Scottish Government is absolutely committed to supporting the sector and its incredible products. The sector, which is worth an incredible £15 billion, is one of the most successful sectors in Scotland, and food and drink are our biggest non-energy exports.

Scotland’s produce is renowned for its quality and its clear provenance, and the sector is driven forward by the resilience and innovation of our producers and wholesalers. We often talk about the industry’s importance to rural and island communities—indeed, many of my colleagues have mentioned that in this debate—but it reaches into every community in Scotland, including more urban areas such as my Rutherglen constituency.

Dunns Food & Drinks in Blantyre, which is a multi-award-winning wholesale supplier and one of Scotland’s most historic family businesses, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. In 1875, Joseph Dunn established a soft drinks business in the east end of Glasgow at a time when increasingly popular aerated waters were sold from horse-pulled carts. Dunns continued to expand throughout the 20th century, moving to Cambuslang in 1995 and then to Blantyre, where it remains. Today, Dunns Food & Drinks is a fourth-generation company with Joseph Dunn’s great-granddaughter, Julie Dunn, at the helm. It has a remarkably wide portfolio of high-quality products, which it delivers largely to the Scottish hospitality trade.

Dunns retains its connection to the soft drinks industry via its Currie’s brand—the home of many long-time family favourites. I am sure that my Ayrshire colleagues will be as interested as I was to learn that its red kola recipe remains largely the same after 100 years. The product has a particularly committed following in and around Ayrshire, where the company sells more than 5 million bottles a year.

Spiceway in Rutherglen is another independent, family-run food and drinks wholesale business in my constituency, and it has gone from strength to strength. Having started 22 years ago with a single vehicle and a 5,000 square foot warehouse, it now has facilities that spread over 40,000 square feet and a fleet of vehicles, and it supplies retailers, manufacturers, hotels, restaurants, takeaways and events across the country.

The Scottish wholesale sector provides a vital service, ensuring that our food and drink supply chain runs smoothly and supporting retail and hospitality businesses. The sector is undoubtedly crucial to the success of many food and drink businesses. To put it simply, our producers make their world-class products, retailers and service providers make them available to the public, and wholesalers are the crucial conduit. They have an important role to play in the growth of Scotland’s economy and the promotion of the Scottish food and drink industry.

In recognition of that, I am delighted that the Scottish Government has developed a strong collaborative partnership with the Scottish Wholesale Association and provides it with funding to help it to support our Scottish wholesalers and producers to increase the volume of local produce that is sold.

On the subject of the links between local produce and the wholesale industry, PK Foods, which is also based in Rutherglen, supplies Indian starters and snacks to more than 90 per cent of Scotland’s wholesale sector and counts many major chains among its retail customers. That company, which is another family business, has been in operation since 1997 and it prides itself on keeping its entire operation in house, from recipe development and the cooking of products from scratch right through to packing and delivery. It estimates that it produces around 10 tonnes of pakoras a week, so it is safe to say that, if anyone in the chamber has eaten pakoras recently, there is a very high chance that they were made in Rutherglen.

In recent years, all parts of the food and drink sector have shown much resilience in responding to the many challenges that they have faced. However, clear areas of concern remain, including the economic strain that has been caused by Brexit, inflationary pressures, increasing energy costs and wider geopolitical disruptions and threats. Using Brexit as just one example, I note that Scotland did not vote for that decision, but we have been left paying the price. UK households have paid £7 billion to cover the cost of post-Brexit trade barriers on food imports from the EU. That has pushed average household food costs up by £250 since the end of 2019. In addition, many Scottish suppliers are suffering from lower volumes of exports to the EU and significant and immediate gaps in labour.

The Scottish Government has taken every opportunity to engage with the UK Government and press it on the impact of Brexit and the UK’s immigration policies on Scotland’s food and drink sector. We have heard about some of that today.

During the general election campaign, we were told that Labour was open to talks about mitigating labour shortages to help businesses to reach their full potential. However, nothing has happened. Instead, the new UK Labour Government has chosen to hammer Scottish businesses via their national insurance contributions—a tax on jobs; has entertained the idea of redefining single malt whisky, to the detriment of the Scottish industry; and makes no argument to reverse Brexit, despite the fact one of its ministers has stated that 60 per cent of the impact of that is yet to materialise.

The best future for the Scottish economy hinges on Scotland being an independent member of the EU. In the meantime, I am confident that the Scottish Government will continue to do all that it can to support the Scottish food and drink sector and its incredible products.

It is our money.