ELECTRONIC IDENTIFICATION OF SHEEP AND GOATS

That this House welcomes the call made by the European Parliament's Agricultural Committee for an amnesty of three years on cross-compliance penalties relating to electronic identification of sheep and goats; notes that the committee made this call because this is a new and complex technology which will require some time for farmers to become accustomed to and for the systems to be road-tested; believes that such an amnesty would remove the current threat of high fines which Scottish farmers and crofters face as they struggle to cope with technology which has been shown to be far from perfect; and calls on the Government to seek the agreement of the European Commission for the early introduction of such an amnesty in the UK.