Seòmar agus comataidhean

I thank the minister and his officials for attending the meeting. That concludes our business in public.

We will suspend briefly to allow for a change of witnesses.

Item 6 is consideration of a negative instrument. At last week’s meeting, the committee agreed to defer consideration of the instrument in order to take evidence from the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity before we disposed of it.

I welcome back to the meeting Jim Fairlie, Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity, who is joined by Scottish Government officials Jesus Gallego, senior policy advisor, animal health and welfare division, and Keith White, solicitor.

I invite the minister to make some introductory remarks.

We move to consideration of an affirmative Scottish statutory instrument. I welcome Jim Fairlie, the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity. I also welcome his officials, John Speirs, who is the senior policy adviser, science and advice for the Scottish agriculture policy and pesticide survey unit, and David Corrigall, who is a solicitor.

I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

I remind Ms Hamilton and the minister of the necessity of treating one another with respect. I ask for one person to speak at a time.

Thank you.

That is incredibly important, but I can tell you that there does not need to be a decision today. There is flexibility—there will be no cliff edge if we do not make a decision today.

I beg your pardon, Emma. Would you like to come back in?

Minister, in your previous response, you said that that could change, depending on the UK budget.

It is the wording from the DPLR Committee’s report.

But that is not unusual. The first SSI that was dealt with today looks to extend the time, but not to some time far in the future. It covers a realistic time in which some issues can be resolved. We see that regularly. Minister, you will be well aware of the number of times that we have dealt with SSIs relating to extending border control legislation. Those covered not years but a matter of months, which is a reasonable time for these things to be resolved. That is one of my concerns.

I will bring Emma Harper back in.