4th Report, 2008 (Session 3)

Annual Report 2007-08

Remit and membership

Remit:

To consider and report on agriculture, fisheries and rural development and other matters falling within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment.

Membership:

Roseanna Cunningham (Convener)
Karen Gillon
Jamie Hepburn
Des McNulty
Peter Peacock
Mike Rumbles
John Scott (Deputy Convener)
Bill Wilson

Committee Clerking Team:

Clerk to the Committee
Peter McGrath

Senior Assistant Clerk
Mark Roberts

Committee Assistant
Vikki Little

Annual Report 2007-08

The Committee reports to the Parliament as follows—

Introduction

1. It has been a productive first year for the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee, with the work it has undertaken covering all the main elements of its remit – agriculture, fisheries, the natural environment, and rural development. The Committee has demonstrated its commitment to making its work accessible to the Scottish people in demonstrated the number of visits it has made across the country – to places such as Aviemore, Elgin, Glasgow, East Kilbride and Perth.

Inquiries and Reports

2. The Committee agreed at its first meeting (in June 2007) to hold an awayday in order to identify priorities for its work programme. Demonstrating its commitment to engagement, the Committee invited suggestions from stakeholders about what those priorities might be. The suggestions received from 45 individuals and organisations, together with stimulating contributions by invited speakers, led members to agree three main priorities for inquiries – flooding and flood management, rural housing, and agricultural regulation. Three further topics – the role of the Crown Estate, ticks and tick-borne diseases, and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation – were also identified as meriting lower-level scrutiny during the year.

3. During the autumn, the Committee also heard evidence from a range of stakeholders and the Scottish Government in the run up to the December 2007 Fisheries Council and contributed to the Finance Committee’s scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007.¹

Flooding and flood management inquiry
4. The first major inquiry, on flooding and flood management, was nearly completed by the end of the Parliamentary year. The Committee heard evidence at six meetings in early 2008 including a major round-table discussion on 6 February 2008. The Committee held a meeting in Elgin on 19 February in order to hear from local residents and businesses who had been affected by flooding. Members of the Committee also participated in visits to Perthshire and Glasgow to see examples of flood management schemes and SEPA’s flood warning systems. This work will lead to the publication of a report early in the next Parliamentary year.

Rural housing inquiry
5. The Committee hosted a seminar in Aviemore in December to focus the remit of this inquiry, to which around 45 delegates from the housing sector across Scotland were invited. This established the main issues for the inquiry as being the role of the planning system, the availability of land suitable for house-building (including infrastructure issues), funding, mechanisms to ensure rural housing remains affordable and the environmental sustainability of rural housing. The Committee began taking oral evidence to inform the inquiry at its meeting on 30 April. Oral evidence sessions will continue during the first part of the next parliamentary year.

Agricultural regulation
6. Given the Committee’s other work programme commitments, it was not able to begin any work on its inquiry on agricultural regulation.

Role of the Crown Estate
7. The Committee took evidence from the Crown Estate in October. This was the first time that the Crown Estate had given evidence to a committee of the Scottish Parliament. The Committee intends to take evidence from the Crown Estate during the next Parliamentary year once the Scottish Supplement to its Annual Report is published.

Ticks and tick-borne diseases
8. The Committee appointed a reporter, John Scott, to investigate on behalf of the Committee the issue of the increasing prevalence of tick-borne diseases. The reporter’s work will continue during the next Parliamentary year.

Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
9. The Committee considered the use of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation in rural areas and exchanged correspondence with the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment regarding the Scottish Government’s approach to the use of the index.

Bills

10. The Committee has not dealt with any primary legislation during the year, although its flooding inquiry, as noted above, was undertaken partly as pre-legislative scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s forthcoming Bill.

11. In April, the Committee considered a draft proposal by Mike Pringle for legislation to require retailers to charge an “environmental levy” on plastic bags. The Committee was not convinced by the “statement of reasons” accompanying the draft proposal, and as a result Mr Pringle will have to undertake a fresh consultation exercise before he is able to proceed with his proposed legislation. If a Member’s Bill is in due course introduced, it is likely to be referred to the Committee for detailed scrutiny.

Subordinate Legislation

12. Throughout the year the Committee has dealt with a large amount of subordinate legislation. It has scrutinised 65 Scottish statutory instruments, two of which were subject to affirmative procedure and one United Kingdom statutory instrument.

Petitions

13. Four petitions that remained open at the end of Session 2 were referred to the Committee by the Public Petitions Committee. Three of these were closed (PE 799, PE 956 and PE 982) following further consideration and announcements by the Scottish Government on the management of Lamlash Bay (PE 799) and by the UK Government on ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Firth of Forth (PE 956 and PE 982). PE 749 on the spreading of sewage sludge remained open at the end of the parliamentary year pending the publication of Scottish Water’s sewage sludge strategy.

Equalities

14. The Committee ensures that equalities issues are embedded in its methods of working and scrutiny work and that the Parliament’s guidance on these issues is followed.

Meetings

15. During the Parliamentary year (9 May 2007 to 8 May 2008), the Committee met 19 times. Of these meetings, one was held entirely in private, and 9 were partly in private. The meeting in private was to discuss a draft report. The other times when agenda items were taken in private were to consider draft reports and to review evidence heard at Committee meetings.

16. The Committee held one meeting outside Edinburgh – the meeting in Elgin mentioned above (in connection with the flooding and flood management inquiry). The remainder of the meetings were held in the Scottish Parliament.

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