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Subordinate legislation considered by the Committee at its meetings on 26 January and 2 February 2022

Letter from the Convener to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, Mairi Gougeon, and the Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform, Mairi McAllan, 3 February 2022

Dear Cabinet Secretary and Minister,

SUBORDINATE LEGISLATION

The Committee considered a number of negative instruments at its meetings on 26 January 2022 and 2 February 2022 and agreed to write to you on the following points.

The Red Rocks and Longay Urgent Marine Conservation (No. 2) Order 2021 (SSI 2021/463)

The Committee seeks further information relating to the consultation undertaken in November 2021, noting that only summaries of the minutes are available on the Scottish Government’s website. The Committee notes, in this regard, Ms McAllan’s letter, dated 1 February 2022, relating to future consultation. We also note a further SSI, expected to be laid on Thursday this week.

The Committee also asks what consideration the Scottish Government has given to the possibility that divers and other fishers may be reluctant to report areas of natural habitat that might need protection where that would also result in access being restricted or limited in some other way.

The Conservation of Salmon (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/466)

The Committee asks for further information about the responses made during the consultation on this instrument, held between 11 August and 10 September 2021. The Committee has been unable to find any information about this on the Scottish Government’s website.

The Committee also notes that the policy note to accompany this instrument does not refer at all to the grading assessment, which was unhelpful.

The Official Controls (Transitional Staging Period) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) (No. 3) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/493)

The Committee notes the Scottish Government’s original intention that the provisions included in this instrument would be included in a UK SI, the Official Controls (Extension of Transitional Periods) (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2021. In your 15 December 2021 letter to us, however, you informed us that the Scottish Government had withdrawn its support for devolved provisions being included in that UK SI after the UK Government “decided – without any engagement with Scottish Ministers whatsoever – to make a number of significant changes to border policy”. You indicated that the “Scottish Government intends to carefully consider these changes and will bring forward a Scottish statutory instrument to give effect, in relation to Scotland from 1 January 2022, to those changes which we consider to be appropriate. This SSI gives effect to these changes.

Following the Committee’s consideration of this SSI, members agreed to ask for further explanation about—

• why the transitional staging period ends on 30 June when there are further stages planned beyond that;
• whether there is any practical difference in import controls in Scotland – compared to the rest of the UK – as a consequence of the Scottish Government bringing forward its own Scottish instrument; and
• confirmation of whether this issue falls within the Food and Feed Safety and Hygiene (FFSH) framework and, if so, Scottish Ministers’ view on how well this framework is functioning, given the issues detailed in the Scottish Government’s letter.

I am copying this letter to the Convener of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee in relation to the potential common framework link.

The Private Storage Aid Scheme (Pigmeat) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/492)

The Committee asks for clarification about why cuts of pork loin were not included in the scheme from the outset.

Yours sincerely

Finlay Carson MSP

Convener of the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee