 We have been into some of the time for understandable reasons in this statement, so I beg your pardon point of order, Mr Crawford. I understand the way that the last session ran over what was expected to be in terms of the statement and the questions. Can you give me an estimated time of when this particular session might finish so that we can get appropriate arrangements? Yes, it is very kind of you to ask. It is not either point of order because control of the debates in my hands. However, I am prepared to tell you, because I am that kind of person, that we have about eight minutes in hand, but I do not want you to abuse that. Now, you see, I should not have told you, Mr Malknick. I can already see you are lengthening your question. This is a statement from Minister Marie Gougeon on supporting sheep farming in Scotland. The minister will take questions at the end of her statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call in Marie Gougeon. Minister, 10 minutes are there about. There can be a few more resonant sites in the Scottish countryside than spring lambs. Thankfully, this year the weather has been much kinder to our hard-working sheep farmers, crofters and shepherds. Most would acknowledge that this is allowed for a good lambing season. We have a lot of sheep in Scotland, around 2.6 million of breeding use on 13,000 holdings. In total, there are around 24,500 farms, crofts and small holdings now with sheep. Of course, the concept of sheep on our hills was once controversial, but ironically they now help us to keep people on the land, with many farms and crofts using land to rear sheep that is not productive for other purposes. We are also seeing a more diverse sector, with more traditional and native breeds making a comeback. If anyone has watched this farming life, we have seen completely new breeds to Scotland beginning to feature. As the cabinet secretary has just said, all sectors will have a role to play in addressing the climate emergency, and farming is no exception to that. The sheep sector is already doing so with its grazing systems that produce high-quality meat with low inputs, but we must go further and faster. I will fully involve the sector to develop new tools and production methods to better address climate change. Working with farmers to make change happen is crucial and underpins how we have taken forward the key recommendations for Government from the Scot review of sheep. Our approach to traceability and provenance is key to this. We have introduced electronic tagging to create a robust recording and traceability system through markets and abattoirs. The data is held in the Scot EID electronic system, which allows keepers to maintain their own information. That also makes compliance with the necessary sheep tracing legislation easier. The effectiveness of the system enabled the Scottish Government to win a dispensation from the European Commission to allow for incomplete reads to be acceptable in the CAP cross-compliance regime, and that represented a significant win for Scotland. The European Commission is now proposing to change the rules through a new animal health regulation. The proposed changes would have been difficult for the particular circumstances of our sheep sector, which can often involve movements during a sheep's lifetime within Scotland and across the UK from birth to fattening to finishing. There has therefore been a significant period of engagement with the European Commission to make the case for our current excellent sheep traceability system in Scotland to continue. I corresponded and met with Commissioner Andrew Cytus, and Scottish officials worked closely with UK Government counterparts to secure their support as well. In particular, I want to thank MEPs Alan Smith and Catherine Styler for their work alongside key stakeholder bodies on the issue. The commission's consultation is now live, and I would strongly urge Scotland's sheep farmers and crofters to respond. They need to make their views known in support of the current wording of the new regulation. Last year, the Scottish Government supported the sector's efforts to persuade the EU to introduce an allowance for alternative methods of ageing of lambs for the purposes of removal of specified risk material—a key control for BSE. The new method would have removed the need for manual dentition checks on lambs, replacing it with a much simpler date-based cut-off, saving the industry in Scotland and across the Great Britain millions of pounds. The Scottish Government and Food Standards Scotland worked with industry to develop an implementation plan and protocol. It would have given effect to a key recommendation of the Scottish review, so we amended legislation and were preparing to go ahead. However, as a result of Brexit uncertainty, the UK Government did not want this change to go ahead. It was concerned that continuing to argue for a differential position for Scotland and GB would impact adversely on the UK's application for third country status. In short, our sheep farming sector in Scotland was seen as expendable. We have continued to press this issue, but Defra recently determined that it could not prioritise this as we have in Scotland. Nor could we go it alone, given that that would mean that Scottish sheep farmers would be subject to different systems across the UK, adding complexity that would make sales in other parts of the UK impossible. Therefore, I have reluctantly agreed that we shall not be proceeding with this change until next year. Of course, none of the everyday challenges of sheep farming compare to the overwhelming risk that Brexit represents. The reckless attitude of the UK Government and its failure to take no deal off the table threatens to make the export trade in sheep meat completely unviable. We may now have a stave execution until 31 October, but a no deal remains a very real risk. No deal would result in our lamb exports being subject to the EU's full, most favoured nation tariffs of 40 per cent or more. That increases the price for EU markets and has the potential for domestic prices to fall by around 30 per cent and reduces competitiveness. Officials across the UK continue to work on a proposed compensation scheme for the sheep sector to address the potential fallout, and our preferred option is a headed scheme. While we welcome undertakings by Michael Gove that the UK Government will pay all the costs arising from a no deal Brexit, the UK Government must now make clear how much money it will make available for a compensation scheme. The best option, of course, is for our sheep sector to be able to sell their product, so we continue to explore how to keep markets open and grow new ones. More people in Scotland and the UK are buying Scotch lamb would help. Last year, we gave QualityMeat Scotland £200,000 to support its campaign to promote Scotch lamb. The impact was significant, with a 27 per cent increase in spend per buyer on lamb during that promotional period. We want to build on that success, so I can announce today that this Government will provide QualityMeat Scotland with an additional £200,000 to support marketing activity in the coming year to help it continue to promote Scotch lamb to people here at home. Additionally, after years of pressing, we have persuaded the UK Government to repatriate the meat levy. Amendments have been made to the UK agriculture bill to allow this to happen, but to get the UK scheme established, it is vital that this bill makes progress at Westminster. It has been parked for months now. With the help of key stakeholder bodies whose input was vital, we will help to deliver an additional £1.5 million supporting our QualityMeat sector, including Scotch lamb. I want to deliver a clear message to Michael Gove. Get on with it. Protecting livelihoods is also one of the reasons why we are supporting efforts to address livestock worrying and predation. Reports of attacks are increasing, and those of you who have seen photographs in the press and recently on social media will no doubt have been as shocked as me. I am fully supportive of Emma Harper's proposed bill to update the law on this issue. We have also commissioned research to gather more evidence of the scale of the problem and explore the impact on animals, but also on farmers, their families and their businesses. We continue to support campaigns by SPARC and NFU Scotland to raise awareness and encourage more responsible dog control in areas where there is livestock. As we saw from the terrible impact of beasts from the east last year on lambing and the toll that that took on farmers, families and communities, climate and landscape are key components to successful sheep farming. That is why we established the Sheep and Trees initiative in 2016 to provide support to improve the productivity of hill farming enterprises. Trees, planted in the right place, can provide important shelter and extend outwintering, thus improving productivity while maintaining flock size on a reduced grazing area. The initiative is working. Since 2016, more than 400 crofters and farmers across Scotland have been awarded £70 million in forestry grants to help them to integrate new woodlands into their farming enterprises. While more than 80 per cent of applicants for grants to create more woodlands are now from farmers and crofters, the role of agroforestry and diversified and low-carbon land use will only increase as we respond to the climate emergency. We will support the sheep sector to play its part, as we do already through cap payments. Many sheep farmers will have benefited from this year's loan schemes. The ELFAS scheme, in particular, made sure that farmers and crofters got additional support in early spring. In April, we started making the 2018 ELFAS payments. I can advise that next week, a further tranche of payments worth approximately £15 million will begin to arrive in bank accounts. Around 2,600 farmers and crofters will receive money, meaning that nearly 8,100 will have been paid since April, with more than £39 million directly supporting remote, rural and island communities. Only Scotland provides additional help to our most marginalised farmers and crofters, many of them in the sheep sector. That Government remains absolutely committed to getting financial help to those who need that help the most. We value the significant contribution that Scotland's sheep sector makes, not just to the rural economy but also to our landscape, our culture and our heritage. Brexit threatens to remove the sheep from our hills and people from our land, and we cannot let that happen. I want to assure everyone in Scotland's sheep sector that this Government will continue to support you. We will always stand up for your interests, and we will keep making the case for Scotland to stay in the EU as the best way to protect those interests. I take questions on the issues raised in the statement. I intend to allow about 20 minutes for questions and the answers after which we move on to the next item of business that would be helpful if members who wish to ask a question were to press their request-to-speak buttons now. I call on Donald Cameron to be followed by Rhoda Grant. We welcome and share the general statement of support for sheep farming this afternoon, given that sector's critical role in Scottish agriculture, that the statement itself was not without some moments of hysteria to claim that the UK Government views sheep farming as expendable must count as one of the world acclaims made by the Government in this chamber and flies in the face of the support that Michael Gove and others have made in support of upland farming in Scotland. Given the Government's cap payment fiasco and the cuts to ELFAS, which it continues to administer, it is pretty rank hypocrisy to accuse others of failing to support sheep farming. The Scottish Conservatives readily acknowledged that, as a sector, agriculture requires to reduce its emissions to combat climate change. Farmers and crofters understand better than anyone else the importance of farming in an environmental and efficient manner. We believe that a long-term transition must be undertaken in a way that is fair and just with farmers seen as a solution, not the problem. Many sheep farmers will have read with some anxiety the report of the Climate Change Committee and its references to eating less beef and lamb in our darts and reducing our consumption of those products. Given those references and the Scottish Government's new commitment to net zero emissions by 2045, what reassurances can the minister give to Scotland's sheep producers that they will not be expendable? In relation to the second part of Donald Cameron's comment, we certainly do not see that of course farmers are part of the solution and they are the custodians of the land. It is vitally important that we work with them. In the cabinet secretary's previous statement on the climate emergency, she outlined a number of projects and visited a variety of different initiatives where we are looking at what we can do to tackle climate change and to implement activities that can be replicated across Scotland. I visited one just recently with the Farming for a Better Climate, which was about soil regeneration. That was with five farmers in the north-east who have a variety of different farms. Of course, that knowledge and what we see developed from that will be vitally important to other farmers across Scotland. I will address the first point that he made about the ELFAS payments and the cuts to ELFAS. That is rich, coming from the Tories and Donald Cameron. That is something that Scotland has protected. It has done away with them in the rest of the UK. We have protected that as far as we possibly can. I absolutely take umbridge with that comment, and it is completely false to say that we have overseen cuts to ELFAS when we have done the exact opposite. We have made ELFAS a priority and a priority of this Government in protecting those payments as far as we possibly can. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Our farmers and crofters need stability and simplicity to enable them to plan ahead. A new subsidy regime must be in place as soon as possible to give the industry a stable basis on which to innovate to tackle the challenges of climate change and to meet our new targets. When will the new group of rural advisers come forward with a blueprint for a new regime in order that our farmers and crofters can meet their new targets? Although we are talking of stability, it would also be helpful to know when ELFAS will be paid at 100 per cent rather than the 80 per cent that is currently being paid. I thank Rhoda Grant for raising those points. I know that the cabinet secretary has updated the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee on a number of those issues at his appearance a few years ago, especially in relation to looking at the commitments for the ELFAS payments and the work that we are trying to do to try to really work on that and find a solution for it. I would say that, in relation to stability and simplicity that Rhoda Grant talks about, that was the key piece of our policy going forward, because, at least for the next five years, that is exactly what we want to provide to farmers and to Rural Scotland, having that stability and knowing what they can expect for the next five years. We have more detailed plans there than exist across the rest of the UK, and I think that it is vitally important to remember that. I think that there was also a point there about the new group that will be established. Again, I think that the cabinet secretary referred to that in his committee appearance, too. Obviously, we are keen to establish that group and to get that going, because we do recognise that, of course, we need to look beyond. We have the policy set for the next five years. We need to start considering that, and that was an agreement that was made in this Parliament when we heard the debate in January and again fairly recently. Work on that is progressing. Alice Duraland, followed by Peter Chapman. It is really disappointing to hear that the United Kingdom Government did not support moving from the unwieldy dentition method of ageing lambs to age cut-off, as the sheep sector in Scotland wanted. How the UK Government arrived at its position, what influenced its thinking and whether the Scottish Government and other devolved administrations were consulted in any meaningful way before DEFRA announced its decision? I thank the member for raising that point, because it was a key recommendation that came out of the Scottish sheep sector review in terms of driving abattoir profitability. I would say that it was definitely the uncertainty around Brexit that was the key factor in the UK Government failing to take forward that proposal, because, like most things that are Brexit-related, the UK Government co-ordination with other devolved administrations on the proposal has been very challenging. On 4 March, we were advised by DEFRA that they wanted to postpone it. The response that they got from ourselves and the other devolved administrations, and indeed the stakeholders, showed that that was not going to be a popular move and indeed would have been the wrong decision. On that basis, both myself and my Welsh counterpart wrote to Lord Gardner, who is the responsible UK minister. There was then some limited engagement before DEFRA took the final decision to postpone on 29 April. Clearly, Scotland's voice and interests weren't listened to and our needs weren't taken into account. I would say that, when it comes down to making decisions, the UK Government rarely, if ever, puts Scotland's needs and interests first. Thank you before I call Peter Chapman. I have 11 members wishing to ask questions, and even giving you additional time, that is going to be very difficult. I want straight to questions, Mr Chapman, not preambles. That goes for everybody who follows. ELFAS payments are due to be cut by 20 per cent this year and 60 per cent next year. The cabinet secretary has repeatedly said that he will limit the cuts to 20 per cent. Excuse me, but we have seen No, that's called a preamble. Question, please. Is this another worthless SNP promise, or can the minister give us any reassurance today that any progress has been made in mitigating these cuts? Minister, please sit down. I would just respond by saying that it is simply not the case. I know that the member will be aware that the cabinet secretary said as much when he appeared in front of the committee a couple of weeks ago. It was 80 per cent this year, and we are committed to finding a solution. You won't find anyone else across the rest of the UK that has committed to funding this and looking at ELFAS in the way that we have and making it a priority in the way that we have. Maureen Watt, followed by Claudia Beamish. The climate change plan suggests that practices such as traditional livestock grazing or reducing the need for synthetic fertiliser etc. can help carbon storage. Can the minister tell us what has been done to promote a positive vision of how farming can benefit and benefit from the need to address climate change? Is it really a neither or sheep or butterflies on our soil to fields? I am trying to keep them short for everybody, minister. I know that my colleague there was referring to the rather flippant comment that was made by Andrea Ladsam about when it came to sheep and butterflies. I would say that in Scotland that is definitely not the choice that we would see. There are a whole wide variety of initiatives that we are looking at. I outlined some of those earlier in terms of soil regeneration, but we also have some other vitally important projects that are under way. We have our climate change champions. I referenced this farming life, the programme that aired on BBC just a few weeks ago, where we had Lynne and Sandra from Lynbrechtcroft in looking at the practices that they are implementing on their croft near Granton on Spay, and Bryce Cunningham at Mosgale Farm as well, and how the work that he is trying to do with his soils and with his dairy herd. So, from all those projects, we can take a whole wide variety of things and policies that will hopefully lead by example and replicate that in other areas. Thank you, but I could do with a bit of co-operation as well. I appreciate that this is an important debate, but co-operation all round. I have Claudia Beamish to be followed by Stuart Stevenson with Beamish. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can the minister confirm whether she would be willing to commit to developing a standardised carbon audit process to be used by farmers across all Scotland, recognising their future contribution? Thank you, Ms Beamish. That was spectacularly right. Minister? I would consider that. I would be happy to meet the member to discuss that further. Stuart Stevenson, followed by John Finnie. Can the Government help to protect lamb exports to the EU, in particular through speedy export health certification, as it is important for me to leave the single market and customs union, as the UK wishes to do? Minister? When we thought that we were facing the prospect of a no-deal brexit just last month, that was export health certification was one of the key issues that was identified by the sector and one that we were trying to find a key priority and one that we were trying to find a solution to. To deal with that, my officials have been working with the animal and plant health agency and with local authorities to ensure that there will be adequate certification provision in the event of a no-deal. As part of that, APHA has been investigating the potential to introduce flexibility and efficiency through the introduction of certification support officers who can facilitate the signing of export health certificates. Thank you very much. John Finnie, we have followed by Mike Rumbles. Minister, you say that brexit threatens to remove sheep from our hills and people from our land. What steps are the Government and you and your colleagues taking not simply to sustain populations in rural communities but to increase populations? I thank the member for raising that vitally important point. I had a meeting with the minister for European migration, Ben Macpherson, to discuss exactly that. That is another big fear and another big obstacle and challenge that we face in light of brexit and the potential changes to immigration that we can see that will do untold amount of damage to people in Scotland and particularly to our rural areas that will be set to suffer the most. That is very much on our minds and something that we are looking to discuss because we want to see people living and working in rural areas. We need people living and working in rural areas and we will do everything we can to make that happen. Mike Rumbles, you ask about Emma Harper. Could the minister confirm whether or not sheep farming interests will be represented on the group that the Government is convening that will recommend a new bespoke system of support for Scotland for the post-Brexit years if, indeed, Brexit actually happens? Emma Harper is followed by Edwin Mountain. Will the minister commit to hearing feedback from my livestock attacks by dogs' consultation, which ends tomorrow? Will she be open to working with me to create a piece of legislation to protect her farmers from such an emotional and costly experience? First of all, I just want to offer my personal thanks and that of the Scottish Government as well to Emma Harper for taking forward what is such an important issue and such an important bill. I really look forward to hearing more about the feedback that Emma Harper has received through her consultation, which I believe has received quite a large, I think, maybe about seven or eight hundred responses so far. We have all seen recently, particularly pictures in the media, pictures in social media, about the damaging effects that livestock worrying causes, not just to animals but to the farmers and their families and businesses as well, so I am happy to work with Emma Harper on her bill as she develops that. I refer members to my register of interest in a farming partnership. I am disappointed that the minister is telling Michael Gove to get on with his bill when they are not getting on with theirs. When will the Scottish Government publish their two agriculture bills? Again, that is simply not the case. I know that the issue of the bills was discussed at the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee as well by the cabinet secretary, where he updated the committee members on the situation with the bills, which we would be making technical changes when they come forward. That is where I think that there are elements within the UK agricultural bill. We have the devolved administration meetings every month, where we have been pushing every month to see what the timetable is for that legislation there, where we see vitally important things like the red meat levy, which we could make a massive impact in Scotland, but we get no idea on timescales and when that is coming forward. We have far more detailed plans in Scotland than what exists anywhere else in the UK. Given that Michael Gove is in the air, does the minister agree with me that it is shameful that Michael Gove, the UK environment secretary, has shafted Scottish hill farmers on the matter of convergency money? EU convergency money of £160 million triggered only because of role-relates of paid to the Scottish hill farmers. I cannot agree more with that. The only reason we received that money in the first place was because of the farmers and the crofters in Scotland. What did the UK Government do with that money? It spent it everywhere else but here. The Tories have the cheek to talk about ELFAS payments. Well, guess what? The convergence monies could have gone a long way to help support our sheep and hill farmers if we were able to get that back. That is why this review is so vitally important, because that was a massive injustice that was done to Scotland and to Scottish hill farmers years ago, where they took this decision and to shaft us on £160 million worth of funding. We want to see that money return to Scotland and for it to go to the place where it is needed. That is with the Scottish hill farmers and the crofters, who were the only reason we got that money in the first place. Can I say to both members that they are not happy with that word and that they are terribly happy with it? That is to Mr Crawford and the minister. It is for me to decide if I am not happy with it and I am not happy with it. I call Colin Smyth, followed by Finlay Carson. Without legislation by 2020, farmers and crofters faced a potential cliff edge when it comes to rural payments. Will the minister at least tell members when the Government will publish a specific rural support legislation that is required to provide future payments? That legislation will be brought forward when we require it and when that needs to be done. However, when it comes to a no deal but exit, we would still be able to pay farmers and pay them the payments that they are due anyway, so that is not a risk for us at the moment. Lastly, Finlay Carson. At the statement mentions culture and heritage, in light of any SNH's decision to remove sheep from Dremor farm in my constituency, what will her Government do to protect the hefted sheep flocks in traditional hill farms in the south of Scotland? Once they are gone, they are gone. I do not know about that specific instance that Finlay Carson raises, but this is an issue. Again, I would be happy to meet with him to discuss that. That concludes questions again. I thank all members because we have to move on. We have everybody and including a latecomer, Mr Carson. There you are. We are now going to move on to the next item of business. I will pause for a few moments before we move on.