Thank you very much, convener, and thank you for inviting me back.
I was last at this committee before the summer, so I should start by reflecting on the fact that we still do not have the details of or, indeed, any certainty of, a deal on the UK withdrawal. The end of the transition is very near, and it is extraordinary that the outcome of the negotiations is still unknown. However, whatever the outcome is and whatever takes place, it will not be a good-news deal for Scotland. We have to be under no illusion: we are faced with considerable and imminent damage that will disrupt Scotland’s economy and society. That will be the theme of what I will say today. We will have an immeasurably poorer substitute for what we have now, in transition, and for what we had with membership of the EU.
I have spoken before about the difficulties of negotiating with the United Kingdom. We have raised substantial concerns again and again about the nature of the engagement. That continues on the issues of readiness. Months passed before readiness material was shared with us and before we were invited to participate in any way in the readiness and preparation structures. We are still not at all the meetings—or close to being at all the meetings—of the key committees.
I have written to the committee with some more examples, and I will not repeat them all. However, there are now fewer than 30 working days until the end of the transition, and there are very considerable and mounting challenges for all sectors and businesses. The evidence that the committee has taken in recent weeks could not have been clearer. Taking back UK control appears to involve taking on significant bureaucracy and chaos at our borders.
Third-country status will mean that full sanitary and phytosanitary—SPS—procedures must apply in exporting to the EU. If anybody is in doubt about that, they should look at, for example, some of the information that shellfish companies in my constituency have been bringing to the table and demonstrating. Along with other demands, businesses face export health or phytosanitary certification, pre-notification of arrival, presentation at border control points, documentary and identification checks, and risk-based physical checks and sampling. There will be fees for certifier time and a fee for clearance and checks at border control posts. New UK Government guidance suggests that those costs and controls will be applicable to all SPS trade—the essential trade of food, animals and plants—including from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Retailers are openly warning of empty shelves in Northern Irish supermarkets, and we are told that the border control post infrastructure in Northern Ireland will not be ready by 1 January.
Against those requirements, ambiguities and confusions, we are doing everything that we can to mitigate the consequences of the UK Government’s actions or lack of actions. However, we will not be able to avert every negative outcome. The practical consequences of the lack of basic information bind all our hands as well as those of businesses as they prepare—as does the continuing essential focus on the pandemic. We are working closely with banks, through the banking and economy forum, to mitigate the economic impacts and to encourage cash-flow support to business. Our multi-agency prepareforbrexit.scot website, which is hosted by Scottish Enterprise, provides advice, access to sources of financial support and online self-assessment tools. Scottish Enterprise is now proactively targeting around 80 high-value traders to offer support. During November, an additional 500 companies assessed as being vulnerable to Brexit impacts will be contacted and offered support. That number will grow to 1,200 ahead of 31 December. However, much more needs to be done, and we are focused on doing the maximum that we can.
I conclude by saying that we did not vote for this. In fact, no one voted for a Brexit of this nature—going out of the single market and out of the customs union and having to accept the end of freedom of movement. As the committee’s evidence sessions have shown, it is an act of extraordinary recklessness to end the Brexit transition period in December, when so much preparation by business remains undone and at a time when the economy and society are being hit hard by Covid-19. It has been an avoidable action, and it is an utterly irresponsible action, but we will, of course, all work to try to assist the people of Scotland with it in some way.