That takes us on to item 9, which is Nora Radcliffe's report. It is a short discussion paper in which Nora Radcliffe describes her plans to advance some of Tavish Scott's work.
The paper is a preliminary report, which states how we propose to develop our work on the implementation of European agriculture legislation in Scotland. The easiest way of doing that seems to be by means of case studies in five separate areas of the agricultural sector on which European legislation impacts. I seek colleagues' agreement that that is a sensible way of focusing the work that we plan to do.
Constituency experience comes into it. I note that your list mentions the imposition of penalties and sanctions on the sector. A number of us have heard extraordinary stories over the years. One guy inadvertently filled in the wrong form—he happened to be colour-blind, so he did not know that he was filling in the wrong form. As a result, he lost out on tens of thousands of pounds of subsidy that his farming business was eligible for. He appealed to the minister at that time, who was Lord Sewel. The line from the minister and his officials was that that was it—rules were rules. The new appeals system is meant to address such issues, but it would be useful if the committee could establish that the appeals system is working.
We hope to tease that out in the course of our work. Any member with a rural constituency could provide dozens of examples of disproportionate penalties for quite minor mistakes. Monitoring whether the appeals system that has been developed is effective will be an important area.
One of the most important parts of the proposed report—models of good practice—is outlined in paragraph 7. When I was a minister, it was essential to have robust advice to give to the farming community on issues such as the use of pesticides. Such advice is essential to prevent each farming unit from being faced with a massive challenge and from having to learn things from first principles. Providing proactive support must be part of the agenda and it will be important to pick up on the extent to which that is done in other parts of the European Union.
Good. Nora Radcliffe will be able to take that on board. Do members agree to the brief for Nora's report?
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