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I have my own thoughts on that, but I will let John Armour answer.

At the moment, the median average for 2021 is 400 days, but if we can bring that down further without causing damage to the herd, that would be a good thing, because it would mean that we would be even more efficient.

I am quite happy to meet the member separately, outwith the committee session, but it is way beyond what we are looking at right now.

Okay—we will take that away. Brian Service has heard everything that you have said.

No, but I will pass over to Brian Service with regard to where that sits.

I will let Brian Service answer that.

Thank you, convener. I also welcome Tim Eagle to the committee. I look forward to working with him over the coming period.

Thank you for inviting me to speak about the Free-Range Egg Marketing Standards (Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2024. The draft instrument will amend assimilated European Commission regulation 589/2008 on the marketing standards for eggs—the egg marketing standards regulation—with regard to the 16-week derogation period that is allowed in the event of a housing order being implemented.

The egg marketing standards regulation requires boxes of class A eggs to be marked with their farming method. For the farming method “free range”, poultry must have continuous daytime access to open-air runs. At present, the egg marketing standards regulation allows a derogation for eggs to be marketed as free range for only the first 16 weeks of any housing order that is introduced. Following that, the eggs must then be labelled as “barn eggs”. The instrument will remove that 16-week limit.

Last year, the EU changed its legislation to remove the 16-week limit on the derogation period, as we are proposing here, so that eggs could continue to be marketed as free range regardless of how long hens had been housed under temporary housing restrictions. That followed a period of consultation.

Outbreaks of avian flu in recent years have, unfortunately, required housing orders to be put in place in the United Kingdom. In 2021-22, that covered the whole UK and exceeded the 16-week derogation period by six weeks, to a total of 22 weeks. In 2022-23, England, Wales and Northern Ireland put in place a housing order that exceeded the 16-week derogation period by seven weeks, to a total of 23 weeks. Both those instances required a change to the labelling of eggs, from “free range” to “barn”, for the short time after the 16-week derogation period.

As the industry has noted in its response to the consultation, which I will come on to, those changes come at a financial cost. Although the current risk level for avian influenza in poultry is low—it is very low for premises with good biosecurity—it is anticipated that the UK might face outbreaks of the virus in the future. As such, a longer-term approach to the issue is the most practical route to take.

Members will be aware from the committee papers that the UK Government and the Scottish Government consulted on the issue jointly, and the results of that consultation show that removing the 16-week limit on the derogation, which will align with what the EU has done, is the preferred route for the industry. More than 70 per cent of the respondents to the consultation were in favour of the removal of that limit, and the figure among Scottish respondents only was even higher at 84 per cent.

As well as keeping Scottish industry on a level playing field with the EU, the change that we propose in the regulations today is also likely to keep us in line with the rest of the UK. Removing the limit on the derogation period reduces potential costs to businesses that they would otherwise have to bear as a result of having to switch labelling from “free-range eggs” to “barn eggs” following the end of the 16-week derogation period. Eggs that are produced in different parts of Great Britain are often packed in the same facility, so if the legislation were to differ across the nations, there could be increased complexity and costs arising from different labelling requirements at different packing houses, which could lead to possible disruption in the supply chain.

In practical terms, then, this small proposed change allows eggs to be labelled as free range for the full duration of any housing orders that are put in place for the health and welfare of laying hens. I note that the current legislation already allows for a substantial period of 16 weeks.

The draft instrument also makes a minor update to terminology, replacing retained EU terminology with assimilated terminology under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 and clarifying that the derogation applies to any housing order that is made under assimilated law.

I hope that my remarks have been helpful in setting out the rationale for the instrument, and I am happy to take any questions that members might have.

Our chief veterinary officer is very diligent about all such things. She is constantly tracking what is happening across all sectors—not just what is happening with avian flu.

They were not that I am aware of, but let me take that to its logical conclusion: if I were the guy with the free-range hens, I would not want my birds to be inside for all that time. It would just add costs and give me issues to deal with. If you are a free-range egg producer, you want the doors to be open and the birds to be out as often as they possibly can be.

I cannot honestly give you an answer as to whether the barn-egg guys were concerned about that, but I would not have thought that that was the place where most of the concerns came from. I can certainly write back to you if we find that to be an issue.

Housing orders will be brought in only in the event of an outbreak of avian flu—that is the first thing that we need to get on the record. A 16-week derogation period already exists, so that practice is already happening.

I take on board the concerns that have been expressed; in fact, I was just speaking to Darren Cormack yesterday about how we can ensure that this happens. We cannot legally force supermarkets to do anything, and one of the reasons why is that, if we had a housing order here in Scotland as a result of an outbreak of avian flu somewhere, we could, as I said in my opening remarks, have eggs coming up from England to be sold in Scotland, because packing houses work backwards and forwards across each other. We would then have to have a separate labelling system for Scottish eggs that had been housed, and English or Welsh eggs that had not been housed, and things would become very messy.

As for what we will do for the consumer, we will make it as publicly and widely known as we can that there is a housing order in place, and that for a limited period free-range hens will be housed for health reasons. As soon as the area in question is free of the flu, the guys who run the free-range hens will be opening the doors to let the birds out, because they do not want them inside any longer than anybody else does. The reality is that avian flu is circulating in the country, and we are likely to see other outbreaks, so we want to make it as easy as possible to keep eggs flowing backwards and forwards across the UK.