Scottish Government accused of lack of preparation

The Scottish Government has been accused of doing nothing to prepare for the dawn of a new era of agricultural policy once the UK leaves Europe.

Farmers and opposition politicians launched a scathing attack on government at an NFU Scotland (NFUS) meeting at Philip Sleigh’s Netherton of Mounie Farm, near Oldmeldrum.

NFUS regional chairman for the north-east Davie Winton said: “You cannot turn farming on and off. We want to see a system in place so we can make plans.” Scottish Tory shadow rural economy secretary Peter Chapman MSP said the Scottish Government was behind its counterparts at Westminster in terms of developing, and consulting on, new policy plans.

He said: “We are looking at a complete vacuum in Scotland.

“We have no idea of the future of Scottish agricultural policy and we desperately need some kind of a lead.”

He said he had submitted a freedom of information request to government asking what was being done behind the scenes to develop new agricultural policy, to which he received the response “nothing”.

However, SNP MSP Gillian Martin said government was not sitting doing nothing, but instead taking advice from industry.

She said: “The Scottish Government is effectively taking advice from key stakeholders on this before we release information. We are doing it in a bottomup way rather than from the top.”