Seòmar agus comataidhean

I will need to get my officials to go into the detail of any specific figure, but the principle is that we understand the risks on the basis of where things are coming from. For example, if we were importing from a country that we know has good plant health controls and where crops such as barley are not infected by a particular pathogen, we would not do as many inspections. However, if a plant or plant material was coming from a country that we know contains that pathogen and that does not have the standards of plant health checks and inspection that we would expect, we would need to increase our inspections to ensure our biosecurity.

I will let my officials answer the second question. On the first question, as I said to Alasdair Allan, it depends on where items are coming from. If items are coming from a country that has good plant health security and that is not affected by a known pathogen, we can safely reduce the level of checks. If plant material is coming from a country where we know there is a pathogen and there is a risk to our crops, we will increase the level of checks. That allows us to be flexible and dynamic and to use our resources to prevent those higher risks.

On the second question, perhaps my officials can give some examples.

I am sure that the answer to your first question is in the frameworks that Caspian Richards has just described. Those frameworks describe how the four nations of the UK work together. I am not sure what the instrument is for parliamentary scrutiny.

That is my understanding.

I will hand over to the officials on that one.

It is my understanding that that is the case.

Are the officials able to say where, in the UK budget, the money comes from?

We will make a note of that and will certainly get back to the committee on it.

I do not know the answer to that. Maybe my officials can help me with that one.

Discussions took place in Scotland with the Scottish tree health advisory group, which is the core stakeholder advisory group for tree health matters in Scotland. Its membership includes senior expert representatives from across the tree and forest sector, who act to facilitate knowledge exchange between the Scottish Government and stakeholders. The discussions indicated that the fee increases that are outlined in regulations 3 and 4 were considered necessary and reasonable and would not have any significant negative effect on the forestry sector. It is also worth noting that the increases have already been implemented in other countries within the UK, so we are bringing Scotland into line.