Meeting of the Parliament 07 November 2024
I would have thought that the member who raises that point would have understood the Bew review recommendations and what was left outstanding. Again, that is a separate issue. We are talking about the new funding and the discussions that should have taken place with this Government that did not.
I have already been clear, as has the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, about the savings that were made in previous years and the fact that they were ring-fenced and would be returned to the portfolio. That commitment remains. However, we need to be clear about the issues and the facts—as the member says—and not confuse them with unrelated issues.
Coming back to the point that I was making, the settlement from the new UK Government fails to address the real-terms loss of previous years and fails to respect devolution by engaging with us. It fails to recognise the potential of our land for nature and climate outcomes, and it ignores the unified voices of our farming industry and our environmental non-governmental organisation base. That is a result of Brexit and of choices that have been made elsewhere.
It was also a former UK Government migration policy choice to adjust the skilled worker visa salary thresholds to increase the minimum earnings threshold from £26,200 to £38,700, which was unfathomable, given the potential to seriously impact our food and drink sector, including our sensitive red meat and seafood sectors.
A joint public letter from industry representatives to the former UK Government in February cited those choices as
“the biggest threat to the meat industry this year”.
Their view was that bringing in labour at the new minimum rate could place a significant cost burden on businesses, and that many businesses will not be able to manage those extra costs. The decision, which was taken summarily by the former UK Government, only served to exacerbate acute post-Brexit labour shortage impacts on the sector—impacts that industry and Scottish ministers had repeatedly highlighted to the UK Government. I am hopeful that the new UK Government will choose to consider the most serious issue of labour shortages in the spirit of collaboration.
We are already delivering our addressing depopulation action plan by working with local authorities to support local priorities around population attraction and retention. We will launch Scotland’s migration service before the end of this year to support employers navigating the UK immigration system to recruit internationally and to support individuals seeking to relocate to Scotland. We are clear that Scotland’s distinct demographic and economic needs require a tailored approach to migration, so we urge a collaborative approach to be implemented between the Scottish and UK Governments to develop a tailored route that would benefit Scotland’s economy, public services and communities.
This Parliament previously endorsed a tailored migration approach for Scotland, which included voicing strong support for our rural visa pilot proposal. It is important to note that that, or a Scottish visa, could be delivered within the current UK immigration system to address population and workforce issues across a range of sectors and regions within Scotland. The fresh talent initiative, which was delivered in collaboration between previous Scottish and UK Governments, is a model example of how that could be done. UK Government policies could limit labour migration in areas of Scotland that already face challenges of depopulation. The availability of an appropriately skilled workforce is vital, but exit from the European Union and the loss of the single market has compounded difficulties faced by rural employers in recruiting skilled workers.
I now turn to fisheries. It was a former UK Government choice to ignore the on-going inaccessibility of labour for our seafood industries. The UK skilled worker visa rules have consistently failed to address that, and I have repeatedly raised the matter with successive UK Government ministers. The new UK Government could choose to do things differently, and we wait to see what approaches it takes to support our commercial fishing industry in Scotland—a sector that, incidentally, comprises a significant proportion of the United Kingdom’s fishing industry, with landings by Scottish vessels accounting for 62 per cent of the value and 67 per cent of the tonnage of all landings by UK vessels, according to our latest published Scottish sea fisheries statistics from 2022.
There have been continued complexities and delays in introducing the post-Brexit regime of checks and controls under the border target operating model, which was published last year. Overall, additional trade barriers and red tape are hampering business and trade flows with the EU, and the Scottish Government is clear that the best set of trading relationships for Scotland remain to be found as an independent member of the EU.
The new UK Government has indicated a willingness to open negotiations with the EU on a sanitary and phytosanitary—SPS—and veterinary agreement to remove the need for many checks, and the Scottish Government stands ready to work together to achieve the best results possible for Scotland’s interests. If there is one thing that could make a significant difference, such an agreement could. It could have significant benefits for key Scottish export products, as well as reducing barriers to trade with the EU, our largest single export market. It would also benefit our partners in the EU by reducing both cost and complexity for EU traders, and it would improve our relationships with the EU in general. I am nothing if not an optimist, and I think that the new UK Government’s opening gambit in relation to the agreement gives us overall cause for hope for better working in the future, in the interests of people and businesses.