Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Official Report 457KB pdf

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018: Instrument Procedure and Category

Welcome to the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee’s 12th meeting in 2022. Stuart McMillan has sent his apologies, and I welcome Jenni Minto, who is substituting for Stuart—thank you, Jenni.

Before we move to the first item on the agenda, I remind everyone present to switch mobile phones to silent.

The first item of business is consideration of whether the appropriate scrutiny procedure and categorisation have been applied to the following instrument, which is laid under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

Official Controls (Transitional Staging Period) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 (SSI 2022/90)

The instrument makes exemptions from some official controls for certain animal and plant products being imported into Scotland from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The instrument has been laid under the negative procedure and is considered by the Scottish Government to be of low significance.

In correspondence with the Scottish Government, the committee asked whether the Government agreed that a choice of procedure was available and if so, for further explanation as to its choice of the negative procedure. The Scottish Government confirmed that there was a choice of procedure and that the negative procedure was considered appropriate, due to the limited impact of the amendments made by the instrument, which will apply for a limited time.

Is the committee content that the appropriate scrutiny procedure and categorisation have been applied to the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.