Official Report 127KB pdf
A number of issues arise in relation to these regulations.
A mishmash of potatoes.
The question again arises of offences being created. The only persons who could be guilty of an offence under regulation 3(5) are the Scottish ministers, but they are exempt from prosecution, which seems a bit bizarre. There are also difficulties with regulation 6, as it appears that the only sanction for failure to comply with regulations 6 and 7 is withdrawal of the certificate of classification. It may be that that was not the Executive's intention. A similar point arises in relation to regulation 9. We should ask the Executive what it intended, as these regulations appear to be rather strange. Perhaps the officials got mixed up when drafting these regulations.
The Executive has done a reasonable job in trying to consolidate these regulations, but many points require to be cleared up and considered, according to our extremely helpful legal brief. In particular, there is a problem with the inadvertent omission of sanctions and the related failure to identify that. The various points that have been drawn to our attention should be examined closely by the Executive, in order to make perfect what is a reasonable bash.
A similar point arises in relation to regulation 10, and there is a question of vires in respect of regulation 20. We will canvass those matters with the Executive.