Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Official Report 531KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Invasive Non-native Species (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment etc) Regulations 2020 [Draft]

Item 3 on our agenda is an evidence-taking session on draft regulations. I welcome the Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, Mairi Gougeon. She is joined by two officials from the Scottish Government: Matthew Bird, biodiversity team leader; and Hazel Reilly, lawyer. Welcome to you all.

Minister, would you like to say anything before we move to questions?

I would like to make some introductory remarks.

The purpose of the draft regulations is to ensure that the safeguards against invasive non-native species that are set out in regulation (EU) 1143/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union are maintained in Scotland when the UK leaves the EU. The regulations achieve that by setting out the rules to prevent, minimise and mitigate the adverse impact on biodiversity of the introduction and spread of invasive non-native species in Scotland, whether intentional or unintentional. Although the EU regulations have direct effect in Scotland, certain aspects of the INNS management regime, such as enforcement and licensing measures, have already been implemented in domestic legislation, through amendments to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

The regulations that are being considered today apply only to Scotland, and a separate UK instrument covers the remainder of the UK. The UK regulations also apply in respect of areas that the UK Government considers reserved as they apply to invasive non-native species, including imports to and exports from the EU.

The Scottish Government’s position remains that the content of the EU regulation on invasive alien species is devolved. However, in order to ensure legal certainty for stakeholders and to have a functioning statute book at the end of the transition period, we have decided to adopt a pragmatic approach. Therefore, the draft Scottish statutory instrument contains an application provision to ensure that the legislation is as clear as possible to the reader, and, in particular, sets out when the UK instrument applies and when the Scottish rules apply. The Scottish Government will produce guidance for stakeholders to assist their understanding of the legislation and the application of the two codes.

The main effect of the 2020 regulations is to adopt the EU list of invasive species of concern as the Scottish list of species of special concern and to enable the Scottish ministers to amend that list by regulation. The policy intention is to maintain the content of that list so that it matches as closely as possible the list of species of special concern that will apply in the rest of the UK, while retaining the flexibility to list the species of particular concern in Scotland.

The regulations also provide that emergency measures can be introduced where the Scottish ministers have evidence concerning the presence or imminent risk of the introduction of invasive non-native species. Those emergency measures are a rapid way of introducing restrictions as a precautionary measure while a risk assessment is undertaken to consider whether it is necessary to add a species permanently to the list of species of concern. Any emergency measures that are introduced would be time limited for a period of up to two years. The effect of that would be to allow the Scottish ministers to take all necessary steps to prevent invasive non-native species from being kept, bred, placed on the market, used or exchanged, permitted to reproduce, released into the environment or transported within Scotland.

The regulations further provide that the Scottish ministers will be assisted on invasive non-native species by a committee and a scientific forum. They do that by referring to the Invasive Non-native Species (Amendment etc) (EU Exit) Regulation 2019, which will make provision for the relevant articles of EU regulation 1143/2014 to have effect for the UK as a whole. That will enable the Scottish ministers to appoint representatives to the new UK statutory bodies, the committee and the scientific forum that will be created after EU exit.

The amendments made by the 2020 regulations do not amount to a change in policy from the way in which the EU regulation currently operates. They correct deficiencies that arise as a result of EU exit to ensure that the legislation continues to operate effectively.

In addition to the issues that are covered in this statement, the amendments include removing or replacing EU terminology—for example, replacing references to member states and the European Commission with references to Scotland and the Scottish ministers, as appropriate—and revoking provisions with no relevance to the operation of the invasive non-native species regime in the Scottish context.

My officials and I will be happy to take questions from the committee.

Thanks very much for that outline, minister. Will NatureScot and SEPA sit on the new committee or the scientific forum? I am trying to work out where they will sit in relation to the decision-making framework for the inclusion of invasive non-native species.

I am happy to explain how the committee and the scientific forum will be formed, and I will give a bit of background.

An invasive species programme board was established in 2005 to deliver the strategic consideration of the threat of invasive species across Great Britain. That board includes senior representatives from England, Scotland and Wales and relevant agencies that exercise responsibility in their own areas as representatives of wider interests. The programme board will remain as a separate non-statutory body that comprises members from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Even though the new committee would be a separate body established by the 2020 regulations, its members, who would be appointed by each of the Administrations, would be the same as the members of the programme board. We already have similar mechanisms in place for the scientific forum. It would be the people on the boards that are already in existence who would form the committee and the scientific forum.

We work closely with all the relevant agencies. Scotland would have representatives on each of those, and we do not envisage that changing. They would still have some input, and we work very closely with the other nations of the UK.

I have a brief question. Obviously, the issue is extremely technical and quite difficult. Are you trying to overcome a time difference in ensuring alignment between what has been happening in the UK and what will happen in Scotland? I am always slightly worried when there are rules for the lawyers and rules for the rest of us.

Working through some of the secondary legislation is definitely not an easy challenge. To put things in very simplistic terms, there was a contested area in respect of what was reserved and what was devolved. Through the instrument, we have tried to make the process as straightforward as possible, and we have tried to make which regulations would apply in which circumstances as clear as possible.

For example, if somebody was looking to import to Scotland a species that was on the list of concern, the importing and exporting relate to the UK instrument, so they would have to seek a permit from the Secretary of State for Scotland. However, if the person wanted to bring the species into Scotland and wanted to breed or keep it or have it for any of the other uses that are in the regulation, they would have to apply for a permit from the Scottish ministers.

I hope that that explains how the two sets of regulations would work alongside each other in practice and that it answers Liz Smith’s question. I will be happy to give more details if that is not sufficient.

Thank you.

No other member wishes to ask a question.

We move to agenda item 4. I invite the minister to move motion S5M-23440.

Motion moved,

That the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee recommends that the Invasive Non-native Species (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2020 [draft] be approved.—[Mairi Gougeon]

If members have any comments to make, this is the time to say so by indicating that in the chat function. It does not look like anybody has any comments to make.

Motion agreed to.

I thank the minister and her officials for coming in front of us today.

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Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (SSI 2020/387)

Agenda item 5 is consideration of the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2020, which is a negative instrument. Do members have comments to make on the regulations? I see that no one is indicating in the chat box that they have something to say.

That concludes the public part of the meeting. In our next meeting, which will be on 15 December, we will consider an updated work programme and arrangements for the publication of our report on our regional marine planning inquiry.

09:11 Meeting continued in private until 11:22.