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Chamber and committees

Subordinate Legislation Committee, 04 Jul 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, July 4, 2000


Contents


Seed Potatoes (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (SSI 2000/201)

We raised numerous matters with the Executive in relation to this instrument. Unfortunately, the response does not seem at all satisfactory.

Ian Jenkins:

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the sanctions that can be imposed and enforced if the conditions are breached. It seems that there is defective drafting throughout the order. It is difficult to put it into words, but the legal briefing note makes clear that there are areas of defective drafting and explains the problems in great detail.

There is a suggestion that regulation 20 is ultra vires and not within the competence of the Executive. I suggest that the committee should draw the attention of the Parliament to that.

The Convener:

We remain unsatisfied about regulation 3(6)(b), although we are satisfied by the Executive's response to our queries about regulations 6 and 7. We were also unsatisfied about regulation 9(1) and, as Ian Jenkins says, regulation 20 appears to be outwith the powers of the Executive. We shall draw those points to the attention of Parliament.