Holyrood ‘surprised’ at timing of spending review
In the world of political ping pong, there was just a hint that the Scottish Government were caught on the back foot over the UK Government’s announcement earlier this week of a review into future agricultural spending with a spokesperson expressing disappointment that the remit of the review had been announced prematurely.
“We are disappointed that the terms of the review have been announced before the Scottish Government has received a response to our concerns.”
The spokesperson added, “This review must not simply be an exercise in playing for time in delivering funding to Scotland’s farmers which is rightfully theirs.
“The only reason the UK, as the Member State, qualified for an uplift is because of Scotland – therefore, the only fair funding solution for Scottish farmers and crofters is for them to receive the £160 million in convergence funding due to them. Anything less than this is completely unacceptable.”
This was followed up yesterday by a letter from Fergus Ewing, the Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy to his UK counterpart, Michael Gove querying why there had been no mention of the greatly disputed issue of meat levies in the recently published Agriculture Bill.
“Your predecessor, Angela Leadsom, agreed as far back as 2016 on the need to find a permanent solution to the long-standing issue regarding the current levy mechanism for the red meat sector. “
Ewing then instanced other occasions when the issue which centres on a loss of levies on Scottish beef and lamb amounting to more than £1 million annually, was raised. Last month he said there had been positive noises from Defra on the issue but there had been no action. “We cannot have confidence that this (the levy issue) will ever see the light of day.
“We simply cannot afford to let this opportunity go by without making the legal changes that are required to allow the just repatriation of levy monies.
“You will know from the comments made during the Second Reading debate on the Agriculture Bill that there is widespread support for resolving this issue.”