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I am sorry to press you, secretary of state, but can you not see that that is exactly the kind of thing that causes the difficulties that we have with the co-operation agreement? You said that subsidy control bills will not be effected because you will not do that to us; however, in reality, you do not consult even on big issues, such as this one, that have a direct impact on our constituents and on the big industries in Scotland. Can you not see that that is causing a problem?

I have one slight concern about something that is touched on in the committee papers regarding the use of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test, as opposed to the other test referred to, which takes longer. I would like clarification that the Government is content that we are not at any greater risk of rabies coming into the country by using that test, which has a shorter timescale, for animals coming from Ukraine.

Okay—we are just going to have to agree to differ on this. Thank you.

Thank you for that answer, Mr Eustice. I had planned to give you chapter and verse on the committees that have taken evidence on the Subsidy Control Act 2022 and the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020, but we are very constrained for time. However, I will cite Jonnie Hall, who gave evidence to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee at the tail end of last year. Mr Hall stated that the internal market act drove “a coach and horses” through the common frameworks. Why are you not sticking to the principles of the common frameworks?

You are constraining the Scottish Government’s ability to support agriculture through the Subsidy Control Act 2022. If we have policies that are strictly designed for Scottish issues, the UK Government can override them if it feels that the policies go against the principles of what it is trying to do down in England. Is that not correct?

The Scottish Government plans to make direct payments to farmers on the basis of food production, and up here we also have hogg and less favoured area support scheme payments. You have none of those in England. If you start being lobbied by farmers down in England who say, “This direct support is causing us problems in our marketplace,” you have the power to require the Scottish Government to take that subsidy away, do you not?

I am very glad that my colleague Jenni Minto raised the subject of the Northern Ireland protocol; we will come back to that later.

I refer back to what my colleague Dr Allan was asking you about. I genuinely get the point that you are trying to be as positive as you can be about the situation regarding the subsidy framework. I refer, however, to what has been reported to the committee for socioeconomic analysis of the European Chemicals Agency—SEAC—the Scottish Government and the House of Lords, and I would particularly like to examine the statement that has been made by a House of Lords committee. It says:

“there are powers under which the Secretary of State can refer subsidies or subsidy schemes made by the devolved Governments to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) which could potentially have the effect of overriding the devolved governments”—

and “overriding the devolved governments” is the really important bit—

“when it comes to proposing subsidies”.

Other countries have agriculture separated from any subsidy control regimes. Why has the UK Government not done that? Did you have any consultation with the Scottish Government when you were putting your proposals forward?

But did you consult the Scottish Government on the Subsidy Control Bill? This point keeps coming back as a major issue. Did you consult the Scottish Government specifically on the Subsidy Control Bill?

Okay. I am going to talk about the impact of extending transitional staging periods and about border checks and import controls. Earlier, you spoke about the digitisation scheme. Salmon is our biggest food export, and it is massively important that the industry can get fresh fish to its destination as quickly as possible. It desperately requires a digitised scheme and you said that you are working on that, but I urge you to work on it very quickly to give some comfort to that industry.

When you decided to extend the transitional staging period for border checks, did you consult the Scottish Government? The president of NFU Scotland, Martin Kennedy, said:

“The prolonged failure of the UK Government to place UK food exporters on an even keel with those exporting goods to the UK from Europe shows an astonishing level of incompetence and failure to support Scottish producers and our food and drink sector.”

Not only is this about the monetary value of food and drink to the Scottish sector; there are also disease risks without import checks. More than 1 million pigs in Europe have been slaughtered because of African swine fever, a disease that has a mortality rate of up to 100 per cent in pigs. Although there would have been no controls had we remained in the EU, our status as non-members poses a greater risk, because we have lost access to the valuable and highly responsive EU surveillance network, which is used to track and trace that disease. Combined with zero import checks, that leaves the pig industry—which is already in crisis—greatly exposed. Can you tell the pig industry and the NFUS why staging has been delayed?

In the interests of time, I will leave it there.

I must apologise—I feel as though I am gatecrashing my own party by going out and coming in again.

I have a technical question for Professor Sindico. Alasdair Allan has alluded to the charges for getting island communities connected to the grid and the fact that connection costs more for an island than it does on the mainland or, indeed, down south. Given the renewable capabilities of island communities, is there an opportunity to do what they have done on Eigg and create community energy systems that do not require permission from anyone else to connect to the grid and that will therefore allow the islands to take advantage of their own natural resources without their being constrained?