Mr. Michael Russell:

Not only do we understand the importance of the Irish-UK relationship, the Scottish-UK relationship is also important. The rest of the UK is our most significant trading partner. There is a social union. Not only was I born in England but my mother and my grandfather were born there too, meaning there is a strong social union. What is important is putting that relationship on the basis of equality. Without that equality, the relationship cannot be as good as it should be. We recognise that and we are all in the same position on that one.

On Dover, I do not think I know more officially than what the Chairman does. We simply do not get the information we need to have. We are able to glean information, however, and understand it in the context of the two rounds of previous preparations for a no-deal Brexit. The real issues will be how long the delays will be, how long any inspections will take and how long any paperwork will take. The recent exercise in which each lorry was subject to 45 seconds of additional inspection led to a massive queue at Dover. If there was any industrial action of any description or reluctance from European hauliers to come into UK, then we would see substantial disruption. This is why these lorry parks have been established and there will be a system of permits for lorries going in and out of Kent. If any possible weather disruption - that is not impossible in the winter - is added to that, there could be a situation where there could be significant shortages. It would not be hunger but it would be significant shortages. If a person is used to buying an avocado every week, then he or she might not be able to get one. It could be much more serious than that too.

We would expect any such shortages to show up after 1 January. There has been significant stockpiling by supermarkets, suppliers and others. It is hard to do that during the Christmas season when there is a large amount of stock in any case. One just has to put things in places. It is the worst time of year for that because warehousing is at a premium. We would expect, however, that there would be no immediate impact up until 31 December. Then there would be an emerging impact on food supplies and other things going both ways. Food exports, particularly, could be affected with a slowdown in activity.

Some of the problems we have seen in the run-up to Christmas because of stockpiling and additional goods coming in could ease the situation. It is difficult to tell, however. The UK Government itself has admitted that food prices will rise and it anticipates some shortages.

On business support, the UK itself has undertaken information schemes and so have we. We have worked through our banking group, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to make sure that there is availability of information. We have targeted particular key players. Like Ireland, Scotland is a smallish country and we can do that. Those countries we know that are likely to be affected, we will be able to target them. There are many small hauliers, individual drivers and small businesses which may have put off dealing with Brexit or have been badly affected by Covid. We will not know the effect of that until what happens on 31 December and the outcome of the negotiations. There may be a period of grace, which many people have asked for. In that case, it would ease any restrictions happening.

On medical supplies, we are focused on making sure supply is maintained. The National Health Service was established in 1947 as a devolved organisation. Accordingly, we have control of the Scottish National Health Service. We have been working with the UK on category 1 supplies to ensure that all three nations - Scotland, England and Wales - can guarantee priority transport for medicines and medical devices, as well as veterinary medicines.

We have also undertaken our own stockpiling in addition to the UK stockpiling. We are comfortable that we have enough supplies. If I remember correctly from the figures from last week, 88% of the items we have tended to stockpile are there while the other 12% are due to come over either this or next week. We believe that we have done enough to resolve that issue.

There is also the issue of substitutions. The Scottish formulary for prescribing is slightly different from that in England. That is a product of different health services. There has been a requirement for us to do some things differently, which we have. We also stand ready to put in place additional measures. That is why our equivalent to the UK's Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms, COBR, the Scottish Government Resilience Room, SGoRR, was stood up ten days ago on a daily basis. That is why our local resilience partnerships are now in operation, a team of senior ministers meets to deal with winter resilience, which are recurrent risk issues, and the smaller group of senior ministers will start daily meetings immediately after Christmas. We are prepared and preparing. We will go on doing so for as long as we can.

We are also dealing with staff in these circumstances who have been on the front line since the start of the Covid pandemic. There has been a considerable strain on them, which is an issue we are concerned about. It will produce an additional burden on all of these people who are helping our society as it is. That is yet another example of the tragedy of this.