Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee
Meeting date: Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Official Report 651KB pdf
Contents
- Attendance
- Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
- European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
Agriculture (Payments) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020
Fertilisers and Ammonium Nitrate Material (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020
We have received consent notifications in relation to two UK statutory instruments as detailed on the agenda. The instruments are being laid in the UK Parliament in relation to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. One of the statutory instruments—the Fertilisers and Ammonium Nitrate Material (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020—has already been made. The committee is therefore being asked to scrutinise the UK SI retrospectively. That is outside the protocol that such instruments are normally considered under, and does not give the committee the usual 28 days to consider it. The committee has therefore been advised that it can only note that the Scottish Government has given its consent.
The Scottish Government has also provided further clarification in writing on the Agriculture (Payments) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, which has been circulated to members and is available on our website.
I will invite members to make comments but, before I do, as committee convener, I have to say that to be given an SI to scrutinise after it has been made without giving the committee due time to consider the instrument is fundamentally wrong and should be avoided. Does anyone want to comment on any of the instruments?
I endorse the comments that you have made, convener. You are absolutely right in what you have said.
I am reading the purpose of the Fertilisers and Ammonium Nitrate Material (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, and I wonder whether anything contained in those regulations will be affected by the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill.
We can certainly put that question in the notes that we submit. I assume that no other member wishes to comment on the instruments.
Does the committee agree to note that the Scottish Government has given its consent to the Fertilisers and Ammonium Nitrate Material (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, an instrument that has been made, and does it also note that we should write to the Government on the point raised by the deputy convener and to note my concern, on the committee’s behalf, that it is wrong to be looking at the instrument in retrospect?
Members indicated agreement.
Does the committee agree that it is content for consent for the UK SI, the Agriculture (Payments) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, to be given?
Members indicated agreement.
11:51 Meeting continued in private until 12:22.