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Chamber and committees

Rural Affairs and Environment Committee, 25 Nov 2009

Meeting date: Wednesday, November 25, 2009


Contents


Subordinate Legislation


Feed (Specified Undesirable Substances) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (SSI 2009/373)<br />Rural Payments (Appeals) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (SSI 2009/376)

The Deputy Convener:

Item 3 is consideration of two instruments that are subject to negative procedure: the Feed (Specified Undesirable Substances) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and the Rural Payments (Appeals) (Scotland) Regulations 2009.

The Subordinate Legislation Committee has commented on both instruments and the relevant extract of that committee's report has been circulated to members in paper RAE/S3/09/29/3. No member has raised any concerns in advance on the instruments and no motions to annul have been lodged. Do members have any comments on either instrument?

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD):

I welcome the Rural Payments (Appeals) (Scotland) Regulations 2009, as I am sure the deputy convener also will. Although there has been a delay in implementation of the regulations, we all understand the reasons for that and the need to get it right.

The Executive note was perhaps a little disingenuous, in that the current procedure had been criticised by the agricultural industry and was put in place with a three-stage approach that was based on consultation of the industry. That needed to be reflected more accurately in the Executive note. That said, the regulations will be widely welcomed by agriculture, as they address needs and concerns that have been present for some time.

The Deputy Convener:

I agree. John Kinnaird and his team have done a good job and I am very glad that the new appeals system is at last in place.

No other member would like to comment, so do we agree not to make any recommendations in relation to SSIs 2009/373 and 2009/376, as detailed on the agenda?

Members indicated agreement.