Chamber and committees

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, officials and I have met regularly with the industry to discuss both the impacts on the sector and how best to keep their workers safe. These discussions shaped and agreed the guidance in a two-way process, demonstrating the sector’s willingness to comply with the advice. We continue to discuss updates with them, to ensure that the guidance is not only providing advice on working safely as per the latest scientific information, but that it can be practically implemented by the industry. Guidance was also translated into four additional languages to ensure workers had full access to our advice on their safety.

HSE is supporting the cross-government response to the COVID-19 Pandemic to help support employers and employees continue to work safely. The Horticulture, Fruit and Vegetables sector is not currently included in spot inspections so any COVID-19 intervention with this sector will be as a result of a concern being raised with the HSE and to date there has been 2 instances of concern which were COVID-19 related, these were followed up but did not warrant a HSE inspection. Where a risk is identified in relation to the possible exposure to farm workers in Scotland, public health officials ensure that appropriate follow-up action is taken. To date there have been no confirmed outbreaks of the virus connected to any farm in the sector in Scotland.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to revoke or vary existing seal licences.

The Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Bill which was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 17 June 2020 includes amendments to section 110 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 to remove the ability of Scottish Ministers to grant licences for the purpose of preventing serious damage to fisheries and fish farms and to protect the health and welfare of farmed fish. All other licensing provisions within section 110 remain unchanged.

Guidance on the use of the other provisions will be prepared to ensure compatibility with the US Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Under Section 129 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, Scottish Ministers must review and publish a report on the operation of the seal licensing regime every five years. The next report due in September 2020 will consider all aspects of the operation of the seal licensing system and include consideration of the application of non-lethal management measures.

The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 currently permits limited shooting of controlled numbers of individual animals under licence in order to protect the health and welfare of farmed fish or to prevent serious damage to fisheries. The number of licences issued from 2016 to now is shown in the following table.

The consideration of planning permission for the siting of individual fish farms is a matter for local authorities who deal with each new fish farm site on its merits through the terrestrial planning process. As part of this process, advice is provided by statutory consultees (including Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Marine Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage) and any representations from other interested parties and the general public are also considered. It is an offence under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 to harass a seal at a designated haul-out site.

The following table provides a breakdown of the number of sites using ADDs, by company, including the device model and whether it is always on, for the period October 2018 to September 2019, as reported in the most recent seal licensing applications. Furthermore, Scottish Ministers are due to report to Parliament on the use of Acoustic Deterrent Devices (ADDs) by 01 March 2021, which will include a comprehensive assessment of the usage of ADDs.

Number of fish farms by company using ADDs by type, from October 2019 to September 2020 (as reported on seal licensing applications for the period 01 February 2020 to 31 January 2021)

The proposals to establish new environmental governance arrangements in the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Bill are relevant to the implementation of the Aarhus Convention. The proposals will allow people freely to bring matters of concern about the implementation of environmental law to the attention of the new, independent governance body, and they will receive information on how these matters are considered and, if relevant, resolved. The intention of the provisions is to replace, with domestic arrangements, the governance role carried out by the European Union institutions until the end of the transition period.

Work on expanding testing for the NHS has focussed on NHS laboratories which already have arrangements in place for receiving samples from patients, testing safely and ensuring that the data from test results is captured. However, we are working with two laboratories based in the veterinary science sector to increase capacity: Biobest, and the Moredun Research Unit. Contracting is underway with both organisations.

This will further increase our testing capacity, which currently is as follows:

Active maximum weekday NHS lab capacity: over 10,000 tests a day;

Weekend capacity: around 8,000 tests a day.

In addition to this we have further capacity through the UKG run Lighthouse Laboratories. Glasgow Lighthouse Lab has capacity to process approximately 20,000 tests a day and may process tests taken from across the UK.

If organisations would like to submit offers of support they should contact the National Laboratories Programme Team or Scottish Enterprise who will share the survey to allow an assessment to be undertaken.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is the competent authority in the UK responsible for the testing of food producing animals for residues of authorised veterinary medicines products and prohibited substances. National Residues Surveillance Programme is carried out by VMD in accordance with The Animal and Animal Products (Examination for Residues and Maximum Residue Limits) (England and Scotland) Regulations of 2015. Food Standards Scotland collect samples on behalf of VMD in approved game handling establishments.

The testing of red grouse for the presence of anthelmintic compounds authorised for use in medicated feed, such as flubendazole, has been carried out since 2016. VMD publish annual figures on gov.uk and advise that they have not tested any samples which exceeded the Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs).