Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Official Report 729KB pdf

---

Subordinate Legislation

---

Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) (Scotland) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2020 (SSI 2020/18)

Item 4 is consideration of an item of subordinate legislation. First, we need to make some declarations of interest. I am a member of a family farming partnership, as is recorded in the register of members’ interests.

Likewise, I need to declare an interest as a member of a farming partnership.

I have a joint interest in a very small registered agricultural holding, from which I derive no income.

Thank you.

Under this item, the committee will consider one affirmative instrument, on which it will take evidence from Fergus Ewing, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Tourism. The motion seeking approval of the instrument will be considered at item 5. Members should note that there have been no representations to the committee on the instrument.

I welcome the cabinet secretary, Fergus Ewing; Andrew Crawley, a lawyer in the Scottish Government’s legal directorate; and Lynne Stewart, the head of direct payments in the rural payments and inspections division. I invite the cabinet secretary to make a brief opening statement.

Thank you, convener, and good morning, everybody. Thank you for considering the Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) (Scotland) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2020, which were made under the Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) Act 2020. Their main purpose is to correct deficiencies in Scottish legislation relating to direct payment.

I acknowledge that the committee might have concerns about the tight timetable for considering this Scottish statutory instrument. However, I am afraid that responsibility for that rests with the UK Government, as it introduced the bill that became the 2020 act only on 9 January, with the act receiving royal assent on 30 January. That was despite the fact that—to be fair to myself—I had been pressing the UK Government for action on the matter since July of last year. The SSI could be made only when royal assent had been received, and it needed to come into force in advance of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, which took place at 11 pm on 31 January.

The instrument does not amount to a change in policy and has been made to avoid technical operational deficiencies arising in our domestic regulations. The Scottish Government recognises how critical the direct payment schemes are for Scottish farmers and crofters and had to make preparations for the exceptional circumstances that arose as a result of the UK’s withdrawal agreement with the EU. The SSI ensures the continued functioning of our domestic Scottish regulatory framework, guaranteeing that farmers and crofters can make claims and receive direct payments for the 2020 claim year, which will assist them to maintain and continue their businesses.

I and my officials are happy to take any questions that the committee might have.

Basically, you are saying that, although you continually contacted the UK Government, you could do nothing regarding the regulations before us until the UK Government had passed its legislation. Is that right?

Yes, I think that that is right. I have never believed that this issue is party political; it is a workaday, bread-and-butter issue. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Brexit—let us park that for the moment—everybody wanted to ensure that all farmers and crofters and other people who are entitled to receive payments continued to receive those payments. I always saw the matter as one of process, not one of party politics.

To be fair to myself—[Laughter.] I think that it is reasonable to make this point. In order to foster the constructive approach that was necessary to achieve the objective that I have just described as being achieved, I pressed the UK Government on the matter in July of last year. I said to Theresa Villiers—possibly in my introductory call with her—“Look, Theresa, you need to do this bill now, because if you don’t you’ll be hobbling around at the last minute.” As I said, the UK Government could have chosen to get on with that last July. It did not do so, for various political reasons, although I will not make anything of that. Then, what I feared would happen did happen—namely, there was scrabbling around at the last minute, with the committee and I having to do the work that we did last month to correct that.

11:15  

To be fair to myself, and thanks to the good work of my officials and their predecessors, I identified a procedural lacuna and, as soon as we had identified it, we said to the UK Government, “Let’s sort this out by working together.” Today, we are completing that process.

There are an awful lot of other things that we should be discussing, and the SSI before us is about finishing off a matter of process. I hope that it will be seen in that light by all members.

There are no further questions. I thank the cabinet secretary for that explanation.

Item 5 is formal consideration of motion S5M-20849, in the name of the cabinet secretary.

Motion moved,

That the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee recommends that the Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) (Scotland) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2020 be approved.—[Fergus Ewing]

Motion agreed to.

11:17 Meeting suspended.  

11:18 On resuming—