Scottish breaching cattle identification verdicts are overturned
UK - Twenty-four Scottish farmers wrongly convicted of breaching cattle identification and movement rules are to have their convictions quashed after a government blunder.
20 September 2006
1 minute read
Scottish rural development minister Ross Finnie has admitted in a written parliamentary answer to Banff and Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson that the convictions have now been deemed unsafe and farmers will have their fines repaid.
Mr Stevenson described the episode as "a real Whitehall farce on the part of the London government".
"Farmers have to contend with a huge amount of red tape as it is and instances such as these just go to prove that even the government does not know which regulations it is imposing on the agriculture industry," he said.
Source: Farmers Weekly Online
