Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Official Report 476KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Agriculture (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2020

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Genetically Modified Organisms and Pesticides (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment etc) Regulations 2020

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Animal Health and Welfare and Official Controls (Agriculture) (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2020

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Aquaculture and Fisheries (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment etc) Regulations 2020

Item 4 is consideration of the four negative instruments. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the instruments. No issues were raised in relation to three of them, but the Aquaculture and Fisheries (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment etc) Regulations 2020 were reported under the general reporting ground. The committee may wish to note that the Scottish Government has undertaken to correct the error by correction slip. No motions to annul have been received in relation to the instruments.

Does any member have any comments to make? I do not see any member wishing to make a comment.

I propose that the committee report that it does not wish to make any recommendations in relation to those negative instruments. As no member has indicated otherwise, I take it that that is agreed.

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Plant Health (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

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Official Controls (Animals, Feed and Food, Plant Health etc) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Under items 5 and 6, we have received consent notification in relation to two United Kingdom statutory instruments. The instruments are being laid in the UK Parliament in relation to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Both instruments have been classified as category B.

The clerks have brought issues to our attention in the papers. In relation to the plant health regulations, the committee had previously been advised that a summary of the plant health framework would be available by the end of 2020. We might wish to ask the Scottish Government when we will see the summary.

In relation to the Official Controls (Animals, Feed and Food, Plant Health etc) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, the committee might wish to make the point in responding to the Scottish Government that the timescales given for the scrutiny of that category B instrument were totally inadequate. It was submitted to the committee on 14 December for consideration on 16 December. There is no chance of delaying, because it has to be reported on by the Government on 18 December.

The committee might also wish to note from the correspondence that the Scottish Government is planning to send the provisional common framework on animal health and welfare by the end of next week. The provisional framework will go live on 1 January, which means that the committee will have no time to consider the framework before it goes live. From a scrutiny perspective, that is far from ideal for such a significant framework.

I have said quite a lot. Do committee members wish to comment?

I take on board your comments, convener, but when did the Scottish Government receive the instruments?

The simple answer is that I do not know. I can report only when we were given them.

I take on board your comments, but it depends on when the Scottish Government received the instruments. There is a chain, and if the start of the chain is late, the Scottish Government will be late. If we are going to make comments, we should make them to the person who started the chain.

Absolutely.

Good morning, everybody. Following what Richard Lyle said, I do not want to write to the Scottish Government to ask why the instruments were so late, because we know why they were—they were coming down the chain from Westminster. Scotland did not ask for all those SIs in relation to exiting the EU, and it is unfair to say to the Scottish Government, which is already dealing with the Covid situation, that civil servants should get the instruments to us in a timely fashion when they probably do not get them from Westminster in a timely fashion.

Convener, I align myself with the remarks that you have made but, in properly highlighting the limited time that we had for looking at the instruments, we should attribute the reason for that to no one because, at the moment, we do not know who is responsible. However, that is a perfectly reasonable point for the committee to make.

The point that committee members have reasonably made is that we do not know the reasons why the instruments are late; we just know when we were given them. Therefore, it is right that the committee questions whether there is sufficient time for scrutiny within the timescale. I do not think that I suggested that we should blame the Scottish Government or that it would be right for the committee to do so because, as Stewart Stevenson said, we have no idea of the process. Those are all good points.

I suggest that the committee writes to the Scottish Government to confirm that it is content for consent to be given to the UK statutory instruments referred to in the notification and to highlight the additional points about the lack of time for scrutiny that we have discussed, without indicating who we think is to blame, because we do not know that at this stage. However, we need to note that two days is really not enough time for the committee to carry out scrutiny.

Do we agree to do that? I am getting nods of agreement. That is therefore agreed.

I do not wish to detain you too much longer, but I just want to say that this is—I hope—our last meeting before the Christmas period. It has been an incredibly busy and difficult year, not only because of the amount of work that we have had but because of the constraints that Covid has put on the committee. On behalf of the committee, I recognise that the past three months have been especially busy for our clerks, who have had to produce two reports—a substantial ferries report, and a report on a piece of legislation—which they have done in quick time. Therefore, I would like to record our thanks to them for all their work in supporting us. I hope that they and committee members will get a reasonable break over Christmas. I also thank committee members for their support, which allows me to do my job as convener.

Our next meeting will be on the morning on 13 January, when we will take evidence on rail services from Abellio ScotRail.

That concludes our business. I wish all members of the committee and our support teams a very happy Christmas.

Meeting closed at 10:21.