FIRST STEP of PASSING AGRICULTURAL BILL

South Scotland MSP Emma Harper welcomes the passing of Stage 1 of the Scottish Government’s Agriculture Bill on Tuesday May the 5th. This Bill allows continuation of the Common Agricultural policy and promotes a simplified approach post-Brexit.

Ms Harper, whose South Scotland parliamentary region contains 48% of Scotland’s dairy farms, had supported improvements in the Bill to support Dairy farmers and Dairy Producer Organisations (DPOs) during Rural Economy Committee scrutiny of the Bill. Witnesses participating in the scrutiny included the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy, Fergus Ewing.

Ms Harper raised the subject of how producers, processors and retailers, need to work collectively with the Government and that support for producers leads to better stability and less volatility in the whole dairy supply chain.

Ms Harper supported the Cabinet Secretary in her first two years as an MSP, as a Parliamentary Liaison Officer to the Cab Sec, and this role allowed her to engage, connect and learn from many farm and agricultural businesses across Dumfries & Galloway, and the South West of her region.

Ms Harper said;

“I’m pleased that Stage 1 of the Scottish Government’s Agricultural Bill has passed through the Scottish Parliament. From a dairy farming family myself, and through working over many years in collaboration with the farming community and stakeholders such as the Scottish National Farmers Union, I believe the passing of this Bill at Stage 1 will help ensure further simplicity and stability for our essential food producers. This Bill is essential so that Scottish Ministers can ensure CAP schemes can continue beyond this year and also modify retained EU Law in relation to the Common Agricultural Policy.

“Both Brexit and now COVID-19 have presented an incredibly challenging time for our agricultural industry in Dumfries & Galloway and throughout Scotland, so this is a great step in the right direction.”

Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said:

“The ongoing uncertainty of Brexit and now the impact of COVID-19 show how important it is to give our farmers and crofters financial stability in the next few years. But we also need to have powers to simplify or improve the current Common Agricultural Policy schemes to tailor them to our unique needs.

“This legislation sets out to do just that by creating new powers to enable us to modify elements of retained EU law. It will also update the legal basis for collecting information about the agri-food supply chain and activities related to agriculture.

“As outlined in our 2018 Stability and Simplicity proposals, we are introducing a transition period until 2024, where we will seek measures to streamline, simplify and free up resources to pilot and test activities likely to feature in a future farming and rural support policy beyond 2024.

“This bill puts in place the legal framework to allow that work to be taken forward. It is largely about process, rather than policy and it is vital that the Scottish Parliament comes together to agree it so that we have these powers in place for 2021. I am pleased that parliament has given its support at Stage 1.”

NFU Scotland President Andrew McCornick said: “This Bill’s smooth passage through the parliamentary process is vital to provide certainty and stability for Scottish producers as well as laying the groundwork to drive our industry forward to deliver the high quality food that the market desires while playing a pivotal role in achieving environmental and climate goals.

“This is the first major parliamentary hurdle for this important Bill and NFUS looks forward to engaging very closely in Stages 2 and 3 when it returns to the parliament.

“The uncertainty facing agricultural businesses through the Brexit process has been massively compounded by a public health crisis with far reaching social and economic consequences. In that context, this Bill provides the necessary stability for agriculture to be a keystone around which recovery can be built.

“That said, this Bill does not set a clear policy direction for Scottish agriculture and NFUS is absolutely clear that a new policy-focussed Bill must also be introduced as soon as is reasonably possible.”

Background

The Agriculture (Retained EU Law and Data) (Scotland) Bill does not set out the future direction of Scottish rural support policy, or completely reform existing policy. This work is being undertaken by the Farming and Food Production Future Policy Group that was announced at this year’s Royal Highland Show.

Stability and Simplicity was published in June 2018 outlining proposals for a five year transition period for farming and rural support in the event of Brexit.