NFU Scotland President, Andrew McCornick, and Vice President, Martin Kennedy, met with the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Scotland, Rt Hon David Mundell MP at the NFU Scotland offices in Ingliston today (Wednesday 4 April). Also present at the meeting was Director of Policy and Member Services, Jonnie Hall, and Political Affairs Manager, Clare Slipper – where the topic of discussion was progress in the Brexit negotiations and NFU Scotland’s newly-launched document ‘Steps to Change: A New Agricultural Policy for Scotland’.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr McCornick said: “Today’s catch-up with the Secretary of State for Scotland is the latest in a long line of meetings the Union has held with UK and Scottish Government in recent months on Brexit. Our constructive discussions focused on the importance of finding common agreement on a future policy framework that ensures common standards are adhered to, but allows future agricultural policies to be developed and delivered by the devolved administrations. As part of this, agreement on a financial settlement to fund the new agricultural policies of the UK will be paramount.
“It is clear however that agreement on these two vital issues is still yet to be found between the UK and Scottish governments and it is our hope that progress can be made in the coming weeks to allow negotiations to move to the next stage. NFU Scotland hopes that it can be part of this process and it is my belief that our proposals, set out in our ‘Steps to Change’ document which was published last week, can form part of the solution. We are delighted that our document has been broadly welcomed to date and look forward to continuing these discussions with governments, parliamentarians and stakeholders in due course.”
