Chamber and committees

I cannot quite remember Sophie Throup’s words, but she almost said that her company would honour a contract. We recently had flooding during storm Babet, when many farmers lost their potato crops and others lost neeps, I think. I am interested in whether farmers have to go out to the open market to honour their contracts. I am not sure whether that is necessarily relevant in Sophie Throup’s case, because Morrisons controls that within its growers. However, would Asda support somebody who had to go to the open market to buy potatoes or neeps to supply you?

Has the introduction of the Groceries Code Adjudicator benefited anyone in the food supply chain?

In what way?

You touched on the subject of my question, convener, so bringing in the other witnesses just now would be beneficial. I can then pick up on anything that does not come up.

I have a final quick question.

Minister, on the basis of what you have just said about looking at a licensing scheme and the correspondence that we have received this morning from SLE, can I take it that the Scottish Government is not set on a full ban on snares?

That was useful. Thank you.

Will the Government seek to carry out an impact assessment on humane cable restraints? Will there be any evidence to suggest a difference between, say, different types of trap use to inform the Government of how efficient or effective different types of trapping are? I am thinking of the difference between live trapping with humane cable restraints and the current Scottish code-compliant snare.

I am sorry, but I am still slightly confused. Regardless of whether there is a proposal for a licensing scheme in front of you, the fact is that you were working on this issue throughout the summer. If you have already done the work, why is that information not available now? For example, are live-capture traps efficient in capturing predators? Is it possible to shoot from live-capture traps in thick cover or challenging topography? Are live-capture traps on a par with humane cable restraints? Has a business and regulatory impact assessment been done in terms of jobs and livelihoods, and what about the impact on ground-nesting birds? Those are the questions.

Can—

I reiterate that, because the SSPCA does not have full criminal investigation powers, it would not be able to recommend to NatureScot that a licence could be suspended.