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Without labouring it, that was exactly the point that I was making: there is already close collaboration on those things. Therefore, we are still talking about what is in the paper.

Moving on, does the Scottish Government have an understanding of the policy divergence that will be accepted within the common frameworks and how that divergence will be assessed?

I clearly remember, back in 2016, asking the head of the Tory party in Scotland and David Mundell where the governance for agriculture would lie post-EU exit only to be told that far more power would be coming to Scotland. That was the repeated mantra: far more power would be coming to Scotland.

We have the decision-making policy with regard to the new agricultural support system. However, with the UK Government bringing in the Subsidy Control Act 2022, do you have any concerns that what we are trying to do in Scotland could fall foul of that legislation?

How do the common frameworks protect your ability to put in place a policy that ensures that the policies that we want to implement in Scotland to support agriculture are as the Scottish Government intends? How do the common frameworks protect that?

Ultimately, then, the 2022 act could overrule the common frameworks that you are working with. Are you telling us that, if you were to put forward a negotiating position through the common frameworks, saying, “This is the problem that we want to address,” but the UK Government had a completely different and diverging policy, that piece of legislation could overrule the work of the common frameworks?

Convener, the witnesses have just raised a point that is really important to farming in Scotland. I have a question that follows on from the one that Rachael Hamilton asked.

Do you have a concern that the potential for you to implement a similar scheme will be impacted?

I am going to refer back to the question that the convener asked about challenges with the frameworks, given that they appear to be agreed between Governments, although stakeholder evidence provides the view that provisions of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 render them kind of useless.

I note that the Law Society of Scotland said:

“We note that there are no domestic legal constraints on the powers of the UK Parliament or UK Government concerning common frameworks.”

It added, conversely:

“we note that the devolved governments will be bound to such common frameworks either because they have agreed to them or because they are bound by law.”

Does that give you concern about how the common frameworks will work for the Scottish Government?

My understanding is that, despite all the rhetoric around common frameworks and how we will work together, it is ultimately the UK minister who will make the overruling decision on whether a common framework is within exclusions that the Scottish Government might wish to apply. Is that correct, or is it your understanding?

We have success.

Good morning. I am Jim Fairlie, MSP for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire.