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The evidence base is being built up now, but, yes, most definitely, young people who are smoking or vaping can access the support facilities. There is also a new study that has been funded, which Professor Bauld will tell you about.

I absolutely agree that we need to do a bit more about those novel products—if I may call them that—and that is exactly what the bill aims to do: it aims to bring products such as heated tobacco and snus under the legislation to ensure that we have better powers to reduce their availability to young and older people. As I understand it, a lot of evidence gathering is still going on in the area, because we need to ensure that we have robust evidence in that respect.

Every year, in common with every other body that is funded by the Scottish Government, FSS sets a budget to allocate its resources to the various areas that it has to cover. Those areas include the food standards regulation regimes that we are here to talk about today, along with providing the public and Government with advice on the food that people consume and improving the extent to which the Scottish public, and people more widely, have diets that are conducive to good health. There is a budget process every year, along with an audit process that looks at Food Standards Scotland’s budget and its outcomes. It is a key organisation within Scotland.

I recognise the work that Emma Harper has been doing on food safety. As I have outlined, I have regular meetings with the chief executive of Food Standards Scotland. It was set up to have the mechanisms to ensure that it remains the competent authority for food and feed in Scotland and that it has official controls. It is important to recognise that it does internal audits on its science and that external audits are carried out by independent scientists.

Emma Harper made a point about the ability to horizon scan and see what is new and what is coming on to the market, which will be a key aspect of the changes that are being proposed. Currently, just under a quarter of Food Standards Scotland’s time is spent on ensuring that we match the 10-year standards, whereas the proposed changes will mean that important resources can be freed up to ensure that we can look to the future to see what potential new additives could be coming on to the market in Scotland.

Georgie, do you want to add anything to that?

The process that has been worked on collaboratively by Food Standards Scotland and the Food Standards Agency allows for what you have just set out. Food safety is key. Because so many new products are coming on to the market, we must ensure that we can give consumers, and the businesses that use those standards, the right scientific evidence and data to know that products are safe. I am pleased that the work, which has been going on for a number of years, has been a true collaboration approach between the two food standards agencies in GB. They worked consistently through the different options and took ideas to their boards at the same time. It was a truly collaborative way of working and one that I was really pleased to see.

This area is a returning agenda point in my conversations with Geoff Ogle. As I mentioned, about 22 per cent of the regulated products service’s time is spent on 10-year renewals. That reduces FSS’s capacity to deal with new product authorisation in a reasonable timeline. We are expecting more than 300 products to come back over the next two years. The reforms are going some way to steady the state of things, to ensure that we have the right resource to put into the new horizon-scanning areas.

It is important to recognise that the change allows us to bring regulation of those products in line with that for other food and feed products that we regulate, and that Food Standards Scotland maintains the power to consider any product authorisation that is needed at any time. That has been part of the work that Food Standards Scotland and the FSA have been doing together to direct the right resource to the right areas, to ensure that we have robust population health and safety through food standards.

It is fair to say that all the products that would be affected by the changes that we are talking about were rigorously reviewed for safety through the EU. We have worked with the FSA, but we still horizon scan to ensure that we are matching the EU’s standards as well.

Greig, can you add a wee bit about the work that is being done with the EU?

One key reason for the change is to allow Food Standards Scotland to ensure that it has the capacity to look ahead and do horizon scanning, looking at risk rather than timespans. I have been having conversations for almost the past two years with Geoff Ogle, the chief executive of Food Standards Scotland. We meet fortnightly to understand areas of concern or risk in Scotland’s entire food landscape.

I do not believe so. There is strength in the fact that Food Standards Scotland, which was set up under the Food (Scotland) Act 2015 to protect the public from risks to health that may arise in connection with food consumption, is independent of Government and that it has the option and opportunities to take advice from independent scientists, as it regularly does. I believe that that is the best way to protect consumers’ interests regarding food and feed safety.

You are absolutely correct. Both Food Standards Scotland and the FSA concluded in their safety assessments that there are no safety concerns when Bovaer is used at the approved dose. As you have said, all feed additives are rigorously tested with safety assessments, which ensures that the products are safe. Businesses must demonstrate that the additive is safe for the animal, consumers, workers and the environment.