Will Labour finally back Scottish agriculture after years of Westminster attacks?   The SNP has called on the Labour Party in Scotland to back Scottish famers by pushing their London bosses to deliver for Scotland’s agriculture sector in the forthcoming Budget. The call comes after NFU Scotland set out its Autumn Budget priorities which it [...]

Emma Roddick MSP has welcomed new Scottish Government funding to support small food and drink business in Orkney through the latest round of the Regional Food Fund. Grants of up to £5000 have been awarded to 15 innovative and collaborative projects across Scotland, with funding supporting everything from farmers markets and festivals to food tourism [...]

Scotland faces unique demographic challenges. Unlike other countries in the UK, we are projected to see population decline by 2030, which cannot be overcome by birth rates alone. Put simply, we need more people to move here to live and work. This is especially true in the Highlands and Islands. Since Brexit, and due to [...]

Text of Letter: Dear Mr Murray Further to Ms Minto’s previous letter of 26th September, we are writing to you as elected representatives for Argyll and Bute in the Scottish Parliament, to urge the UK Government to sign the Argyll and Bute Growth Deal without any further delay.  As you are aware, both the Scottish [...]

Emma Roddick MSP for the Highlands & Islands has praised the resilience and dedication of the team at the SaxaVord Spaceport in Unst, following an explosion during testing on the site in August. Ms Roddick visited the site herself, to hear directly from those involved in the project. SaxaVord is Europe’s first fully licensed vertical [...]

MSP for the Highlands & Islands Emma Roddick has met with Orbex in Tongue last week to see the progress on the Sutherland Spaceport. The Spaceport, which was granted planning permission in 2020, will be the first spaceport on the UK mainland capable of vertical rocket launches. There are three locations involved in the project [...]

Highland Stoneware is such a staple of Sutherland that it’s hard to imagine there was a time before it - but it’s now celebrating its 50th year. I got to spend part of the afternoon with its founder, David, who showed me pieces of the business’s past and present, and talked about how the team [...]

SNP MSP for the Highlands & Islands Emma Roddick called for councils to be given the power to place levies on cruise ships visiting island communities in Parliament earlier this term. The Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, was passed in the last Parliamentary session before recess, and will allow local authorities to apply a visitor tax on tourists [...]

MSP for the Highlands & Islands Emma Roddick has urged the Scottish Government to allocate more funding for mobile abattoirs in the region. The Scottish Government allocated £180k last year from the Small Producers Pilot Fund, which aims to support microbusinesses in Scotland, to support two mobile abattoirs.   Emma urged the Scottish Government in [...]

SNP MSP Emma Roddick has asked the Scottish Parliament to remember the positive potential of the Highlands and Islands when considering how to address depopulation. In a debate led by the Tory colleague Tim Eagle, she asked the Government not to think of rural and island areas simply as places that need money to remain [...]