Instruments Subject <br />to Annulment
Plant Health (Phytophthora ramorum) (Scotland) Order 2002 (SSI 2002/223)
I will not vacate the chair at this point, but I will ask Ian Jenkins if he will speak to the plant health order, as he knows how to say the title of the order.
Ms MacDonald is in doubt about how to pronounce a word in the title of the Plant Health (Phytophthora ramorum) (Scotland) Order 2002 (SSI 2002/223). We had some discussion about how to pronounce that, but we will not go into the reasons why I pronounced it as I did rather than in any other way.
Oh, yes. Please let us hear the reasons. It is something to do with polysyllabic words, is it not?
Yes.
And the penny—or is it the penultimate—
No.
The antepenultimate syllable—
The antepenultimate syllable is where the stress should come as a rule, but it is a rule to which there are many exceptions and which I get wrong on many occasions.
We think that we might not ask the Executive about that. Although we are laughing the order is not funny—it is about the rhododendrons. I was out last night after I had read the order, just checking the rhodies, but the committee will be pleased to hear that there were only wee black beasties on them, so I think that they are perfectly okay.
Is it only certain species of oak in the USA that are infected, or is the anxiety that certain species of oak in the UK might be infected?
It is nice of you to be as insular as that about our oaks, but we do not know and we are not asking the Executive about that either.
They are not the ones that they are going to bring in for the new Parliament building, are they?
Those are from Germany.
Yes, but they are American red oaks.
They are American red oaks, but their cousins came from Scotland, so that is okay.
They are not bringing them in now, are they?
We do not know whose oaks are coming in, but please do not let us get into that at the moment.
National Health Service <br />(Optical Charges and Payments) (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Regulations 2002 (SSI 2002/224)
No points arise on the regulations.
Dairy Produce Quotas (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2002 <br />(SSI 2002/228)
There is a typo in the regulations.
Yes, there is a small typo where it says "2001", but should read "2002". Apart from that, the regulations are fine.
Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 (Consequential Amendment) Order 2002 (SSI 2002/233)
The order may not be fine, because it may not be a consequential amendment. The committee obviously has no remit as regards the efficacy of the policy, but we would say in passing that we entirely agree with the policy. We think that it makes sense for the Executive to have moved quickly to fill the gap that may have arisen between the old policy and the new one, since that will obviously affect people immediately. However, there are legal questions about whether such an order is the way to do that. Are there any comments?
In the circumstances, I am minded to accept the Executive's explanation as to the use of the enabling power in the order. In general, such use might be deprecated, but I do not think that this is a case in which we need go further than simply to note the matter at this stage.
Perhaps we could also ask whether it is an exceptional use of the enabling power, given the peculiar circumstances, and ask for assurances that it will not be used routinely.
That is reasonable. By doing that, the committee will be acting as a watchdog, just as it should.
I am content with that.
Thank you. That is agreed.
Meat (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) (Scotland) Regulations 2002 <br />(SSI 2002/234)
It seems that the Welsh committee that is equivalent to our Subordinate Legislation Committee asked why, in schedule 17C, TVC is referred to as meaning both "total viable counts" and "total colony count".
I suggest that we ape the Welsh.
In this matter only?
Yes.
I have never been keen on leeks myself. However, in this matter only we shall do as they have done. We must ask the Executive about the confusion over those two definitions. Is that agreed?