Rural and Environment

  • Clarity on seafood support

    26th February 2021 by

    The UK Government must provide urgent detail on its new seafood funding scheme or risk undermining the support it is looking to provide businesses impacted by EU Exit and coronavirus (COVID-19), Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing has said. In a letter to the UK Government ahead of the second meeting of the Scottish Seafood Exports Taskforce...

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  • Fisheries Secretary responds to UK Government seafood funding announcement

    9th February 2021 by

    Commenting on the opening of the UK Government’s Seafood Disruption Support Scheme, Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing said: “After three weeks of waiting for detail, it is disappointing and beyond any rational explanation that this new compensation scheme will not help the vast majority of fishing vessels who continue to face the cost of the disruption...

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  • Compensation needed for Scotland’s food and drink businesses

    14th January 2021 by

    Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing has urged the UK Government to provide compensation to Scotland’s beleaguered food and drink sector as a result of the current trade issues. The sector is currently facing a series of challenging impacts as a result of the Brexit deal establishing new non-tariff barriers. This is compounded by the coronavirus...

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  • Update on seafood sector exports

    12th January 2021 by

    Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing met key seafood businesses and organisations this afternoon to discuss the ongoing issues affecting trade. Following the meeting, he said: “The plain facts are these very serious problems have arisen because of Brexit and the UK Government’s failure to agree to proposals about how to implement it – in particular...

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  • Post-Brexit seafood export delays

    7th January 2021 by

    Responding to reports of delays with exporting seafood from Scotland to the EU as a result of post-Brexit arrangements, Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing issued a statement. He said: “The Scottish Government, together with Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and Scottish Local Authorities, have been working intensively for many months to mitigate the worst impacts of...

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  • The EU has been a good friend to rural Scotland

    31st January 2020 by

    The EU has been a good friend to rural Scotland. For the whole of the Scottish Parliament’s lifetime, the rural economy has benefitted from our membership. Over the years, our engagement with it has allowed Scotland to push our case on everything from agriculture and fisheries policy reform, to fishing quotas and forestry. Scotland has had a voice in the room – a room we will no longer be able to enter.

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  • Trading with the EU after Brexit

    14th October 2019 by

    Scotland does not want to leave the EU but there is a strong risk that we may end up leaving without a deal in place on 31st October 2019. While the Scottish Government is doing as much as it can to mitigate the impact of leaving the EU, we cannot mitigate for every impact. Leaving the EU will mean things we currently take for granted, or which we agreed to as part of a Member State, will no longer stand. This note sets out what you need to do to ensure your food and drink business can continue to import/export…

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  • In the news: landing obligations

    16th July 2019 by

    You may have seen in the news and online reports relating to a House of Lords inquiry that found fishermen are continuing to illegally discard dead fish back into the sea.

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