Chamber and committees

Mike Flynn, are you saying that you believe that illegal snaring will continue among those who are bad practitioners or poachers even if the legislation is in place?

Does the contractual process vary among agricultural sectors?

Out of interest, how many appeals have there been?

First, I just want to say that we will not see that protocol as part of the bill process—I think that everybody understands that—and I have concerns about the extension of the SSPCA’s powers if the provisions in the bill are passed. Will the SSPCA be able to use those extended powers without a protocol? We want to understand what will be in the protocol and what will be the agreed standards. That has been touched on slightly. Who is the best person to speak to that?

Police Scotland highlighted some concerns in previous evidence. Do you have any concerns about how robust the protocol will be and how standards and training will be covered by your partnership agreement?

I have a question for David Lynn. We are in new territory with the new protocol. If somebody had their licence suspended on the basis of an investigation that had been carried out through the agreed protocol, which we have not seen, would that individual have the ability to appeal against the process that had been carried out if they believed that the protocol had not been followed?

I would like clarity on what will happen if the protocols cannot be agreed between Police Scotland and the SSPCA. In that circumstance, will the powers be extended to the SSPCA? I ask Iain Batho to answer, if he is the right person.

I know, but I want to be clear on it.

I have been looking at some of the statistics, and I was concerned to see that one in five farmers says that they have suffered a wasted crop because of cancelled orders. In such cases, 29 per cent of farmers received no explanation, and 29 per cent of them had not been paid in 30 days.

Some of the key concerns among farmers are that they want to sell what they have agreed to sell to supermarkets, they want to be paid what it was agreed they would be paid, they want to be paid on time, they want a longer-term commitment rather than a short-term one, for sustainability reasons, and they want to agree on fair specifications. However, it sounds as though Chris Brown is saying that supply and demand, affordability and other external factors are playing into the issue. Given the really challenging legislative demand on Scotland’s farmers through the agriculture legislation, how can supermarkets look to a sustainable future and ensure that farmers have people to succeed them on their farms?

The dairy industry is to be protected—I use that term broadly—so that dairy farmers can stop any contract changes and have a fair say in the process. We hope that that will be quite groundbreaking for dairy farmers. Do other sectors in agriculture have the ability to cancel a contract or come to you and say that they have had issues such as frost, drought or flooding and ask you to be flexible?