Chamber and committees

Okay. Thanks.

Regarding capital works, the United Kingdom Government’s decision to cut the Scottish Government’s capital budget for the next five years by nearly 9 per cent in real terms has had a severe impact on healthcare projects. Can the minister advise of any conversations that have been held with the UK Government on that matter? Will she join me in calling on the UK Government to reverse those harsh cuts, to ensure that Scotland’s health service infrastructure can be significantly improved?

In some parts of Scotland, people are farming and crofting in the most marginal and challenging of circumstances. Does the cabinet secretary share my concern that any undermining of Scotland’s ability to tailor agricultural payments to the specific needs of our sector could potentially render certain types of farming and crofting unviable and be a catalyst for people leaving agriculture and their communities? That is why it is vital that the devolved nature of agriculture is not undermined.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I could not connect. I would have voted no.

Under the SNP, any transition to a climate-conscious Scotland will leave no one behind. Does the cabinet secretary agree that a just transition is of the utmost importance and that it must build on the voices of Scotland’s communities, workers, union representatives and businesses, along with the voices of agriculture, including those in Dumfries and Galloway?

Okay. Should that monitoring and evaluation have been built in up front, so that we started assessing, monitoring and evaluating as soon as SDS was implemented? Is that part of the process of assessing 10 years since the Feeley report? I know that Public Health Scotland has good dashboard information about options 1, 2, 3 and 4 and uptake of them. What are your thoughts about monitoring and evaluating from the get-go? What do we need to evaluate when it comes to implementation of self-directed support?

Okay, thank you.

Sandesh Gulhane said that five years is a long time to make a change. I am a former nurse clinical educator and we used to try to implement change on a massive scale across NHS Dumfries and Galloway, which takes time.

I was interested to hear Des McCart mention how we can use appreciative inquiry to empower social workers and to help them innovate and make changes that matter to people who are in receipt of self-directed support. I am interested in exploring change management. Is five years too long? How do we empower social workers through their skills training? Nine universities in Scotland teach courses and bachelor’s degrees in social work. Do they include in their curriculum appreciative inquiry and self-directed support to empower social workers to implement self-directed support in the most effective and efficient way?

I do—thank you, convener. I hear what you are saying about the removal of 22 products and the changes to other foods coming on to the market. I want to raise again my concerns about the colours, flavours, emulsifiers and stabilisers and the chemicals that are added into our food supply chain. Stevia, for instance, interrupts the gut biome and can affect people’s hormone levels. I also read that it can cause depression. There are other issues with ethylene oxide. It is carcinogenic and mutagenic. Ethylene oxide residue is used to sterilise surgical instruments and medical devices; that is where I learned about it. It is now used as a pesticide and a sterilising agent for food, so there must be some standards required for a minimal amount of ethylene oxide residue when it comes to food supply.

Our documents show that Food Standards Scotland and the Food Standards Agency have reviewed the European Food Safety Authority’s opinions, along with all the documentation on what we are discussing today. I am interested in the issue of everything that is coming on to the market with novel foods.

There is also the issue of the novel food cetylated fatty acids, which has a maximum level of 1.6g per day in the European Union, whereas Great Britain’s maximum level is 2.1g per day. Cetylated fatty acids are not naturally occurring, except for in some dairy products. Now they are added to our food. I would be interested to hear why it is 2.1g per day in GB, but 1.6g per day in the EU. I assume that it is to do with safety margins.

I just wanted to raise my concerns about the continuing issue of chemicals that are coming into our food supply.

Thank you, convener, and good morning, witnesses.

I have a couple of questions about monitoring and evaluation of self-directed support. It is not really part of the development of the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013, but we seem to be adding more requirements for monitoring, evaluation and reporting into much legislation that is passed these days. I am interested to hear why monitoring and evaluation of policy are important.