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I will ask my officials whether we have up-to-date information on that.

We have had discussions with Food Standards Scotland to ensure that no public health risk would be associated with the approach. Generally, the advice would be to follow what is on the label. The labelling element is critically important in making things clear. The advice would be to prepare poultry in line with what is set out on the label.

The commercial freezing and defrosting process is different from what people would do at home, and it is important that people follow the label instructions. Generally, if a product has been defrosted, it would be recommended that it is stored and chilled before it is prepared rather than refrozen.

The advice is to follow the instructions on the label. That is why it is really important to show clearly that the poultry has been defrosted.

They are being sold only as defrosted. More birds could potentially be frozen—that could be an option—but we have taken the decision and gone ahead with it because retailers cannot stock more frozen products. They are already selling birds as defrosted, if that makes sense.

On enforcement, we can see what has happened across the rest of GB. Local authorities have been asked not to enforce the regulations as they are, whereas, in Scotland, we have changed the legislation. We would simply be enforcing in the normal way.

We are not looking to do that at the moment. We intend the approach to be for only the stated period of time, given the nature of the outbreaks that we have seen.

To put things in context, at this time last year, we had not seen any cases. The circumstances are therefore very particular. We will, of course, potentially consider the matter again in the future, but, given the urgency of the situation and to prevent market disturbance, we have set out the approach for that period of time.

Absolutely. Obviously, the regulations will be in place for only a short period of time. Ultimately, we have to make decisions that are in the best interests of the industry and producers in Scotland. That is why we have introduced the regulations. The approach is in line with what is happening across Great Britain at the moment.

As far as I am aware, you are right: the EU is not introducing similar regulations. However, we know that AI impacts not only Scotland and the United Kingdom; it impacts other countries, too. I believe that there were trade reasons why defrosted meat was not permitted to be sold in that way. I do not know whether the officials have any other information on why we have set that out in regulations.

What do you mean? Do you mean potentially extending that or bringing it forward? Obviously, we would want to see what impact there has been. We will monitor that after 31 December to see how the approach has worked and whether it has had that impact.

As far as I am aware, this is the first time that we have introduced the regulations. My officials are nodding. I believe that this is the first time that we have done that. Given the nature of AI and what we have seen this year, the situation is unprecedented; we have never seen an outbreak like it. That is why we have had to introduce the regulations. There are unique circumstances.

They would not be able to be sold past that point. That is what we set out in the regulations. They can be sold only until 31 December.

That is why we have the common frameworks processes—they allow us to discuss matters at an early stage. As part of the common frameworks, we share information early and try to resolve any potential issues as early as possible, so that they do not need to be escalated. If it looks as though there might be policy divergence, the common frameworks ensure that we discuss at an early stage what the impact might be and how it might be managed.