Rural Affairs and Islands Committee [Draft]

Meeting date: Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Official Report 695KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Plant Health (Import Inspection Fees) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024 [Draft]

Good morning, and welcome to the ninth meeting in 2024 of the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee. I ask everyone to switch their electronic devices to silent.

We begin with consideration of an affirmative Scottish statutory instrument. I welcome Lorna Slater, the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, and her officials: John Speirs, senior policy adviser, and Emily Williams Boylston, a solicitor from the Scottish Government.

I invite the minister to make an opening statement.

Thank you, convener, for making time today to consider the draft Plant Health (Import Inspection Fees) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024. The regulations are being made to amend Scottish legislation on plant health to legislate for fees for new checks on medium-risk plants and plant products that are imported to Scotland, as set out in “The Border Target Operating Model”, which was published by the United Kingdom Government in August 2023. Of course, the model is required only as a result of Brexit. The Scottish Government continues to believe that the best trading relationships for Scotland will be found as a European Union member state.

The Scottish Government has been frustrated by how the UK Government is developing the border target operating model in relation to devolved issues. I appreciate that last-minute decisions by the UK Government have meant that the committee has not had the agreed notice period in which to consider some UK statutory instruments, including the one related to the Scottish statutory instrument that is before you today. When it is within our control, we will always endeavour to ensure that the committee has sufficient consideration time, as we have done with the Scottish statutory instrument.

The draft SSI is linked to a UK statutory instrument: the Plant Health (Fees) (England) and Official Controls (Frequency of Checks) (Amendment) Regulations 2024, which the committee considered at its meeting on 28 February. The committee agreed with the Scottish Government’s decision to consent to the provisions being included in UK subordinate legislation, which was welcome. The UK SI makes changes to the official controls regulations to reflect the introduction of plant health checks on certain medium-risk goods, along with similar amendments to the Official Controls (Plant Health) (Frequency of Checks) Regulations 2022, which introduced the current risk-targeted inspection regime.

The 2024 regulations now introduce the Scottish import inspection fees that correspond to the fees for England that are set out in the UK SI. They provide that for a period—currently up to 30 October 2024—no fees are payable for checks relating to medium-risk fruit and vegetables from EU member states and Switzerland and, similarly, for any goods from those countries and Liechtenstein that enter via a west-coast port. That is in line with the UK SI and the border target operating model. The fees in the 2024 regulations are in line with the Scottish Government’s approach to achieving full-cost recovery of service delivery from businesses that use relevant services.

The regulations are, therefore, necessary and appropriate. My officials and I are happy to take any questions from the committee.

Thank you for your opening remarks, minister. I have a question about the consultation. Two Scottish businesses gave some feedback and only three businesses in total responded. I cannot find the link to the consultation responses. Will you talk us through the two Scottish businesses that expressed no objection to the proposals and what they set out, if you have that information?

I will hand over to John Speirs for a bit more detail on that.

The two businesses were horticultural businesses. I do not have the details to hand, but I can certainly provide them for you.

That would be helpful. Thank you. From the comments that Ms Slater made, it seems that those businesses have no objection to the proposals. I am trying to balance the argument that was just given to the committee.

The consultation was undertaken by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the comment period was 10 weeks. Three responses were received. Was that three responses in total across the whole of the United Kingdom, two of which were Scottish, or were there three Scottish responses, two of which raised no concerns? I am a bit confused.

There were three responses and two were Scottish. The two Scottish businesses had no concerns. The third response was unrelated to the consultation.

I do not know how many responses to the consultation you would have expected. However, businesses will have to comply with certain requirements. How will they be made aware of the changes with which they will have to comply?

I will give a summary and then hand over to John Speirs. Putting the border controls in place is all part of the progress of Brexit. There have been controls for high-risk goods, and now the controls for medium-risk goods are being put in place at the borders.

I ask John to give us some detail about how the businesses find out.

There has been on-going engagement with all the horticultural and plant-based businesses to keep them informed of the development of the border target operating model and the requirements. There has also been engagement as each new phase has been introduced. For example, in the first phase of the border target operating model, which was introduced on 31 January, phytosanitary certificates and plant health certification are required for medium-risk goods that come in from the EU, and there was engagement prior to that to make sure that businesses were aware. Likewise, there is engagement for the changes that will come in at the end of April.

The committee has dealt with numerous transitional SSIs on import restrictions. Am I correct in thinking that that is all part of the Windsor framework—the new deal that was agreed at the end of last year—and that no new instruments should come in, because the regulations replace the interim measures?

The border target operating model and the Windsor framework are two different things, but I will hand over to John Speirs to get into the weeds of it.

The border target operating model is separate from the Windsor framework. The model is for trade with the EU and the rest of the world, whereas the framework is for trade with Northern Ireland.

09:15  

Ms Slater, you may know that I am convener of the cross-party group on gardening and horticulture, for which the secretariat is the Horticultural Trades Association. An issue that came up at our meeting last week was the need to have tight biosecurity to protect our country from non-native species. That might be slightly different from what we are looking at, but it is related. It would be great if we could have some reassurance that that will be protected, that there will be a seamless and efficient transition and that we will have something that is like-for-like, so that we do not bring species that are not welcome into Scotland.

I absolutely share that concern. That is exactly the transition that the border target operating model represents. When we were a full member of the EU, we were able to trade goods without border checks. Trading with the EU has been relatively low risk in the interim period since Brexit because our regulations and requirements were in line. We will inevitably diverge over time, however much we would like to stay in alignment, so we must have border controls now that we are outside the EU. That is why the border controls are being brought in. Trade has been relatively low risk, but the risk could increase over time.

We are taking a risk-based approach. High-risk goods are already being checked, by both documentary means and physical inspections. That is being done at the place of destination, not at the border. Those high-risk goods are already being tracked and managed, and we are now bringing medium-risk goods into the regime, albeit with various exemptions that I would be happy to go into. Essentially, there is a phased roll-out of border controls.

John Speirs may wish to add more detail.

The minister has summarised that well.

As there are no further questions, we move on to formal consideration of the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee recommends that the Plant Health (Import Inspection Fees) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024 [draft] be approved.—[Lorna Slater]

As no member wishes to debate the motion, is the committee content to recommend approval of the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

Finally, is the committee content to delegate to me authority to sign off our report on the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

That completes our consideration of the instrument. I thank the minister and her officials for attending. I will suspend the meeting briefly to allow a changeover of witnesses.

09:18 Meeting suspended.  

09:22 On resuming—