I thank everyone for their contributions to the debate. A range of very good points has been made. I welcome the broad cross-party support for the establishment of food standards Scotland and for the bill.
Duncan McNeil set out in a very fair way the broad areas that the legislation will provide for, and he rightly highlighted the various views that exist on the creation of food standards Scotland. I recognise that not everyone in the sector believes that its creation is the right thing to do for their particular purpose, although the vast majority believe that it is the right thing to do. However, I am sure that all members recognise that we have arrived at this particular point not because of a failing on the part of the FSA but because of changes that have taken place elsewhere and because the expert group—not just Professor Jim Scudamore, but also the other representatives on his expert group—came back with the recommendation on how we need to respond to the matter. We took that on board and introduced the bill.
We have therefore arrived where we are with very good reason, and it is incumbent on us to ensure that we take the bill forward in an appropriate way. We will ensure that we get the provision on food safety in Scotland that we require.
Duncan McNeil made a number of very important points about where FSS needs to sit with the rest of the regulatory bodies and functions that already exist. Its partnerships with the FSA in the rest of the UK and other representative organisations in the rest of Europe and beyond are absolutely critical. Alongside that, there are our local authorities, health boards, producers and retailers and the roles that they all have in food safety and production in Scotland. FSS has an important role to play, and we will need to ensure that it fulfils it effectively and in an appropriate way.
I hope that members are reassured by the memorandum of understanding on a range of issues that we are taking forward with the UK Government. I believe that it will be a very productive way for us to continue what has been, from the process that we have gone through to establish food standards Scotland, very cordial and responsive engagement with each other in taking the whole area of policy forward.
Richard Simpson and a number of other members raised the very important issue of dietary improvement and how FSS can assist in co-ordinating the whole approach to tackling dietary issues and improving nutrition. We made provision in the bill to give FSS a very clear strategic role that no other body in the country currently has in order to help to drive that agenda forward.
Richard Simpson made a very good point about the need to tackle issues related to salt, sugar and fat in our diet. The FSA has taken forward a range of work over a number of years in which it has made progress. For example, it would be fair to say that many of our big supermarket retailers, including Asda and Tesco, have adjusted and reformulated their own products to reduce things such as salt, fat and sugar in their products.
We have made less progress with branded products. Indeed, I think that we are getting to the point at which we must ensure that retailers recognise that they are part of the solution in dealing with our nutritional challenges and dietary problems in Scotland, and in tackling obesity. The issue is a societal one, and our retailers and food producers have to play their part in helping to overcome it. FSS has an important role in helping us to ensure that that happens effectively in Scotland.
Richard Simpson and several other members raised the issue of the potentially wider remit of FSS. When we decided to take forward the bill, I was clear that I wanted to protect our reputational integrity in Scotland for good food products, and I wanted to ensure that we protected the first-class work that is currently taken forward by the FSA in Scotland to ensure that there was no loss of public confidence as we moved to a new public body.
That is why we have taken a cautious approach. We have done so to ensure that we get the things that the FSA does just now right in the new body so that there is no question about its role and people having confidence in it. We have created a footprint in the bill that allows us to expand and develop the body as we move forward.
If we do that, we will rightly have to look at the resource implications, to which members have referred. Nanette Milne referred to obesity and nutrition and she touched on funding. It is important to recognise that we already fund the Scottish proportion of the FSA’s activity. We fund it at Scottish level and we pay a central amount to the UK body for some of the centralised roles that it undertakes. Therefore, the budget for the FSA in Scotland is already part of the Scottish Government’s health budget, and it will go to FSS.
The issue on which we are still in negotiation is moving some of those centralised functions that we already pay for into the Scottish organisation. I am confident that we will reach an agreement on that. I assure members that FSS will have the budgets that are required for it to undertake the functions that the FSA presently undertakes. If we choose to change those functions, the Government of the day, of whatever party, will have to consider the resource implications.
Aileen McLeod highlighted the importance of research in the food and animal health sector. As a number of members rightly pointed out, it is important that FSS can participate in research programmes at UK level. It is also important that we have access to expert advice, as we intend and have agreed with the FSA, but it is equally important that we provide access to the expert advice that comes from Scotland. As Lewis Macdonald highlighted, Scotland already provides expert advice on nutrition and dietary issues and, in particular, on shellfish and E coli, and our intention is for that to continue. We also intend that we will be able to participate in research programmes at European level, where there is a range of work to which we can contribute.
Claire Baker raised the issue of an employee director. That is a good and fair point to which we are sympathetic given our track record on health bodies, which have an employee director appointed to the board by ministers. The reason why we cannot make a decision on that now is that we do not have a chief executive, a chair and a board in place, but I reassure the member that, given our track record with present health bodies, I would like that approach to be reflected in FSS, because an employee director can have a valuable role in a national organisation.
Claire Baker also raised a valid point about EROs, our environmental health officers. I should say EHOs, not EROs—that is what happens when you get caught up in referendums. The administrative fixed-penalty regime will help to relieve some of the burden on our EHOs. When they want to take forward an issue, that often involves a report to the procurator fiscal, submitting further reports and then a wait for the matter to go to court. It can sometimes take more than a year or two before a case even gets to court. The fixed-penalty scheme will allow us to release some of that burden, which is why some of our EHOs have welcomed the measure. It will allow them to be much more responsive and to move on to other issues.
We also have to consider the testing that our EHOs undertake. We can use different models for that. We could have testing that is controlled more centrally by FSS, working with local authorities and funding them for the purpose of undertaking the testing. However, we need to ensure that we have good data collection at national level. There are a variety of options that we can consider pursuing to help to address some of the issues.
A number of members talked about an appeals mechanism for the fixed-penalty scheme. We have to be careful not to get into a situation in which there is an expectation that every fixed-penalty notice can be appealed, as that could draw the whole system to a halt because of repeated appeals.
At present, if someone is stopped by the police and offered a fixed-penalty notice for a driving offence, they have the right to refuse that. If they refuse it, a report goes to the procurator fiscal and eventually the matter will go to court, where the person can then argue their case.
There is an element in this process that, if someone is issued with a fixed penalty notice and they disagree with the EHO, they can refuse it. The matter would then go to the procurator fiscal and the fixed penalty notice could be challenged in court. We need transparency and a consistent approach from local authority to local authority to how the measures are applied. However, I strike a note of caution to those who call for an overall process of appeal.
I have not been able to go through all members’ very valuable points, but we will consider them as we move forward with the bill. I want to finish with this point: our staff in the FSA in Aberdeen do a fantastic job for us. I am very proud of the job that they have done over a number of years. This has been a difficult time for them, with the uncertainty of moving to a new body. I am sure that all members will want Parliament to send out a clear message that we value their work and that, as we move towards establishing food standards Scotland, we will make sure that they will be able to continue to undertake that valuable work.