S2M-742 Food for Good

Scottish Parliament

Wednesday 28 January 2004

(Afternoon)

[THE PRESIDING OFFICER opened the meeting at 14:30]

... ... ...

Food for Good

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Murray Tosh): The final item of business today is a members' business debate on motion S2M-742, in the name of Mark Ballard, on food for good.

Motion debated,

That the Parliament commends UNISON on the production of its "Food for Good Charter" and considers that NHS Scotland should adopt the targets set out therein for organic produce, animal welfare and fair trade and accept the UNISON Food for Good recommendations on meat quality, five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, recycling and composting, patients not profit, resources, real food and fair pay as policy.

17:10

... ... ...

17:20

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): I draw the attention of members to my entry in the register of members' interests and I apologise in advance because I shall be leaving before the end of the debate to attend another meeting.

I thank Mark Ballard for giving us the opportunity to discuss the important subject of food, something that I am looking forward to indulging in a little later this evening, as usual.

Unison has done an excellent job with its food charter. Like that union, I believe that there are three important strands in producing healthy, quality foods with respect to animal welfare and fair trade. I prefer the Fairtrade coffee that comes from Columbia to that that comes from Kenya and I think that the fair trade movement provides a lot of choice within its boundaries, which I commend.

We have to use our procurement system in a constructive way to deliver on our objectives, but the NHS is but one strand of the considerable public procurement budget. I understand that food for patients currently costs about £55 million a year. If we extend that, it becomes an extremely substantial figure.

We want to aspire to higher standards of welfare and production; in many ways, our standards are higher than those of other countries in the European Union and they are much higher than those of countries further afield. That is particularly the case with regard to pigs: the cost of pig-meat production in Scotland is higher than it is elsewhere because our welfare requirements are higher. At present, procurement practice discriminates against buying that higher quality food.

Local production means local employment, which is often not taken into account in relation to tenders. Of course, local employment means more money circulating in local areas. If we procure food locally, we reduce food miles and we reduce pointless consumption of fuel.

It is a matter of grave disappointment to me—as an SNP member—that I have to commend the situation that has been brought about by the English Government as being substantially in advance of that which exists, at this point, in Scotland. Procurement in the NHS in Scotland concentrates on procurement departments and procedures. In England, however, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has launched a sustainable food procurement initiative that includes five priority objectives: to raise production and processing standards; to increase tenders from small and local producers; to increase consumption of healthy and nutritious food; to reduce adverse environmental impacts of production and supply; and to increase the capacity of small and local suppliers to meet demand. That is what we are after in Scotland.

The English have also addressed the difficult issue of how that interacts with European Union procurement policy and have solved the problem by referring to standard schemes. By the way, the English are being entirely fair to us and the guidelines list a series of Scottish standard schemes, for which I commend them. The point is made—in relation to the EU's procurement rules—that we are permitted to specify delivery frequencies, freshness and taste as criteria that might give local suppliers a competitive advantage provided that a foreign supplier is not denied the opportunity to compete on equal terms by setting up here. That is quite legitimate.

I commend the DEFRA guidelines to the Executive. If it lifted them and copied them, we would probably be happy. Only a word or two would have to be changed.

17:24