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I wonder whether the committee has had any discussions with the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee about whether it will look at the subject. I know that the Health and Sport Committee in the previous session of Parliament looked at some issues to do with rural healthcare. In a way, the problem extends from the very start of the process, with the training of clinicians, right through to how we support them in different areas. They are now all trained to work in huge teams, but when people work in rural general hospitals, they are not in a big team.

In addition, the standards of care, which are written for urban areas, are not transferable to rural areas. One of the lessons that I have learned from my time in Parliament is that policies that are written for rural areas work in urban areas, but that is not the case the other way round. We should be turning this on its head so that we make sure that people have access to the services that they need.

I wonder whether the committee has discussed the matter with the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, because a light needs to be shone on it and some detailed work is required to make sure that we get the changes that we need. We certainly need to have people advocating for our rural areas, because that is just not happening.

My final point is that, in the Highlands and Islands, we get assistance with travel and accommodation, but it is absolutely inadequate when people get £40 a night to stay in Inverness and they cannot find a room for less than £400 a night. That is impossible, and it is creating a barrier to healthcare.

I echo some of the things that the petitioner said about the Sumburgh radar project in his written response. I share his concerns, and I believe that he has highlighted areas that we need to look at.

When the ATMS project came to light, everyone agreed that something had to change and that safety improvements had to be made, but it was felt that HIAL was going in the wrong direction.

Radar is really important, but my understanding is that there are concerns about the training that is being delivered to the new operators of radar who will be transferred across. In his submission, the petitioner says that training has ceased, so all the work that has gone on has now stopped. The training manual is being rewritten and will need to be approved by the Civil Aviation Authority, which will build in quite a time lag.

It would be good to find out how many people need to receive the training and how many people who were in training will go into the new programme once it is signed off. I also understand that the whole thing might not have been signed off by Transport Scotland. We need to ask Transport Scotland whether that is the case. It might be worth asking NATS, which runs the Sumburgh radar at the moment, what it thinks is happening—it must have a date in mind, because it has a contract and will know when it is supposed to be handing over the radar to HIAL.

Quite a few concerns have been raised with me about the situation, and I wonder whether the committee has given any thought to the suggestion that Audit Scotland should consider the issue. If it does so, perhaps it should also consider the issue of the transfer of radar.

The petitioners have made it very clear what the issues are. There is a huge distance to travel to access healthcare, and they are not being heard.

Let me give the example of maternity services in Caithness. I have been asking the health board for a risk assessment of the journey between Caithness and Inverness for someone who goes into labour early, for example. I know that there are people who are more likely to be induced or to have an elective caesarean, but there are people who go into labour and need to drive down that road. The road is horrendous in winter and can often be blocked.

As we were discussing before the meeting, expecting someone to drive down there with a partner who is in labour is unacceptable. It is an offence for someone to use a phone while driving a car. Imagine what it is like for a driver to have someone in active labour beside them while they are trying to concentrate on a really difficult, dangerous road. No one will risk assess that journey. I have asked the same question in relation to routes in Moray. I hope that the committee would at least request that a risk assessment is done on transporting people in emergency situations where there is no local healthcare.

When this situation started in Caithness, there was not enough ambulance cover. Quite often, if one person was being transported by that means, the area was left without an ambulance. That problem has been resolved to an extent, but the situation is still not ideal.

I support the petitioners’ argument that the healthcare service that they have received is not equitable.

I thank the committee for the huge amount of work that it has done on the issue and for all the evidence that it has taken. In some ways, you are responsible for our being in a much better position than we were when the petition was first lodged.

However, you would not revisit that—you would not look at it again. I am conscious that that might be a way to rebuild trust and to reassure the communities that you want to work with them, too.

I have a bit of both, convener.

I will not go over ground that has been covered by the committee, apart from to say that I am pleased that Prospect and HIAL are working so well together and that staff are now involved in the working groups.

There is a level of distrust about why we have reached this point and what has brought us here, about which you answered a question at the beginning of the meeting. I suppose that the independent review in five years is what is causing people some concern. Is this just a pause? Will that review bring us back to where we once were?

First, how do you rebuild trust, not just with the workforce—I understand from you and Prospect that that work is on-going—but with the communities that you serve?

Okay. Thank you.

Radar for Shetland airport, which is the one airport that uses remote radar at the moment, was to transfer from NATS to HIAL, but there has been a delay. What are the reasons for that, and does it augur well for centralisation to Inverness of radar for the other airports?

Is there an option to have the radar controlled locally at the airports, which would create more jobs? That would almost be to go in the opposite direction of travel from what was happening previously. Using the recruitment approach that Liam McArthur talked about, local people might be recruited and trained. That would create more jobs in the local communities, where they are desperately needed.

I will press amendment 1, and I support the other amendments in the group. However, I have to agree with Colin Smyth that the Government’s amendments do not go far enough on their own. The purpose of the legislation must be clear in the bill. If we draft legislation properly, it will last for generations, and we must remind future generations what the bill set out to do. Being clear that the purpose of the legislation is

“to give effect to the human right to food”

will ensure that future generations will not face hunger as the current generation has. I appeal to the committee to support amendment 1, because I believe that it will make a difference to the bill and its implementation in the future.

I am disappointed that Ariane Burgess does not support my amendment—I urge her to think again, because I believe that it is a principle that the Greens hold dear and that we will be judged badly if we do not support it. Therefore, I ask members to support amendment 1.

Amendments 13 and 24 are about strengthening the impact of plans. Amendment 13 would ensure that the Scottish ministers must act in accordance with the national plan. Amendment 24 would ensure that relevant authorities must act in accordance with their plans. In the bill, as introduced, they are required only to have regard to their plans. We heard that that carries no weight, as the comments and thoughts in the plans can also be disregarded. Amendments 13 and 24 would strengthen the impact of plans and ensure that they were adhered to.

I move amendment 13.