Before I come onto quarantine units, just picking up your first point about approachability, certainly, I want to have those discussions with the sector and one of the reasons I set up the stakeholder group straight after the referendum last June—I think we met on 4 July for the first time—was to make sure that we brought the agriculture and environment sectors together. I thought it was really important that we didn’t have those silos. I have to say, we’ve had probably up to about 10 meetings now, and it’s been really good to see those two sectors working so positively together.

On the issue of quarantine units, when I came into post a year ago, I was told we needed to get moving really quickly on these new arrangements and I was criticised last summer for not bringing it forward quickly. We have worked on this policy, with the sector, really closely. My officials have worked with the livestock identification advisory group on those proposals and we continue to work with stakeholders on the delivery of the project. It’s not a mandatory scheme, so, they can choose: if they prefer the six-day standstill to the quarantine unit, they can choose to do that. I know there’s a financial cost and, again, if they choose not to have a QU, then any movements onto their farm will trigger the six-day standstill. They need to weigh up which is the best scheme for them personally.