Meeting of the Parliament 16 December 2015
That was a helpful intervention, minister. I hope that, in the light of that report, she will now come to the right conclusion. We would certainly be keen to push the matter in the amendment stage.
The Scottish Labour Party supports the inclusion of shootings and deer forests on the valuation roll, but there was an awful lot of opposition to part 6 of the bill, and more evidence, particularly in the business regulatory impact assessment, could be provided. Crucially, we need to know that local authorities and assessors will have the necessary resources to carry out that work. It is hugely important that that is done fairly and, given that there are particular concerns about very small holdings, we need clarification on that.
We support the measures on common good land. They tidy up existing legislation. The accurate mapping of common good land will increase transparency. That, by definition, is a good thing.
We very much support the comments on deer management made by the committee convener, Rob Gibson. Clearly, there are areas where the system does not work. Although the proposals provide some help, the bill does not go far enough. We need to see biodiversity problems properly addressed with urgent action and SNH given stronger powers to act. We would want to see that in the final version of the bill.
We accept that access rights are important and the new provisions should lead to more—and more effective—access.
I will not be able to do justice to the agricultural holdings part of the bill. It has been extremely difficult to scrutinise that area, because the Scottish Government told us at the outset that it had not finished working on the provisions. We are getting—not quite weekly, but almost—more information about that from the Scottish Government.
We support the aim of a vibrant tenanted sector, with support for new farmers and a capacity for longstanding farmers to leave their tenancies with fairness and to have access to good housing. However, that will require a great deal of work.
We welcome the tenant farming commissioner, but the codes of practice will need to be enforced on a statutory basis to deliver fairness across the whole country.
We are being drip-fed the Government’s responses. That makes it not only difficult for the committee to consider all the potential amendments, but difficult for people who are not in the Parliament to see the full picture. The bill is complex and hugely important, and we support it, but that approach will emerge as a major challenge for us.
The Government amendments are due on 13 January and our amendments are due on 15 January and we have a recess between now and then. We must ensure that the bill is the best that it can be in order to deliver for the people of Scotland and that it stands the test of time. We need to deliver that together. If the Scottish Government can tell us when it will give a response to the stage 1 debate, that will help us immeasurably.
16:36