Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Official Report 706KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Eggs (Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 [Draft]

Our next item of business is consideration of the draft Eggs (Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2021. These regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure, and I refer members to paper 3. Once again, I welcome Mairi Gougeon, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, and her officials. We have with us Judith Brown, solicitor; Joe Kirk, senior poultry officer; and Kevin Matheson, livestock policy manager. I invite the cabinet secretary to crack on with her opening statement.

Thank you for having me here to speak about the regulations. The draft instrument would amend retained European Commission regulation 589/2008 on the marketing standards for eggs with regard to checks done on imported class A eggs. At the moment, checks for class A egg marketing standards take place at the place of destination, such as egg packing centres and wholesale premises. However, for eggs imported from third countries, the retained EU regulation requires that the checks are carried out at the time of customs clearance. Given that the UK has left the EU, a greater number of checks would need to be made at the border. Therefore, the instrument would amend the regulations to enable marketing standards checks to continue to be undertaken on imported class A eggs at the place of destination, rather than at customs. The checks are and would continue to be undertaken by suitably qualified egg marketing inspectors prior to release for retail sale or mass catering.

The instrument would also enable checks on imported class A eggs to take place where resources are already established and where there is already expertise. We believe that that approach would be more efficient and practical. In reality, there are currently no imports of eggs directly into Scotland from the EU or elsewhere, other than infrequent and small quantities from the Republic of Ireland, although some eggs arrive in Scotland from the EU via English ports. For that reason, the UK and Welsh Governments are taking forward corresponding amendments for their jurisdictions.

I hope that those remarks are helpful in setting out the rationale for the draft instrument. Of course, I am happy to take any questions that committee members might have.

Thank you. I will kick off with a question. Given that it is some time since we left the EU, why has this legislation been brought forward only now?

An awful lot of work has had to be undertaken very quickly since we left the EU. As I said, in effect, this Scottish statutory instrument puts into legislation what has been happening in practice with the checks at the place of destination. That is why it is being brought forward now.

Are we likely to see more SSIs to allow inspections at the place of destination—rather than at border crossings—for other products?

I cannot give you a definitive answer on that today, but I am happy to come back to you with further information.

The policy note states that class A eggs are rarely imported, as you said. How many eggs are imported?

As I have said, movements are very infrequent and involve very small quantities that come directly into Scotland from the Republic of Ireland. I do not know whether officials have the exact numbers.

We do not. As the cabinet secretary said, very small numbers come into Scotland from the Republic of Ireland. The amendment is about future proofing, in case we ever get an influx of imports in the future. That is the whole point.

Given that a de minimis number of class A eggs is coming in, is that monitored? Are veterinary or other inspectors there, to ensure that we do not have fraud and that those measures are kept in place?

Highly trained inspectors undertake that work. That is also the point of the statutory instrument, because it means that we can focus our resources and that more inspections will be enabled than would happen if it was determined that they were to take place at a customs checkpoint, which would split the resources that we have and would take our inspectors away from the work that they are currently doing and the checks that they already undertake. It therefore allows us to better utilise the resource that we have at the moment. The SSI does not change any of the checks that take place; all that it does is change where they take place.

I have a very quick question. I assume that we are talking about eggs in the shell rather than liquid or powdered eggs.

Yes.

What consultation did you have with egg packaging and wholesale organisations to look at the pros and cons of the instrument? Were there any adverse impacts of carrying out the inspections at a wholesaler’s premises or wherever, rather than at a border post?

Consultation was done on a GB basis. From what I understand, NFU Scotland was the only Scottish stakeholder to take part in that consultation. It commented that the proposals made sense. However, I think that there had been other opinions within that consultation—from the British Egg Industry Council, I believe. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had held a round table.

I pass the question to officials, who can give more information about comments on the proposals.

A round table was held to talk through any issues. The Scottish Government poultry inspector made the point that we were far more likely to uphold the marketing standards if we could make inspections at packaging centres and wholesale premises, because that is where all our resources are and where we are set up to do it. As the cabinet secretary said, if we were to take staff away from routine inspections and put them at customs posts, that would result elsewhere in a watered-down version of the checks. It is fair to say that no dissent followed from the round table.

My very brief question is probably for Kevin Matheson. What would the potential threats be to our industry if we were importing eggs from another country?

I think that they would involve competition in the domestic egg market. Maybe Joe Kirk has a better idea about that. One thing that came up in the consultation was that, as long as the same checks were applied to imports as to domestic eggs, we will be happy. Again, we went back to the point that the best way that we can guarantee that is to do those checks at the points of destination.

Since there are no further questions, we move to formal consideration of motion S6M-01816, which is agenda item 3.

Motion moved,

That the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee recommends that the Eggs (Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 [draft] be approved.—[Mairi Gougeon]

Motion agreed to.

Is the committee content to delegate authority to me to sign off a report on our deliberations on that affirmative instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

Excellent. That completes consideration of the affirmative instrument. I thank the cabinet secretary and her officials for attending.

09:30 Meeting suspended.  

09:42 On resuming—