Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment
Richard Lochhead
Annual Scottish dinner at Holyrood
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This is the third time I've had the pleasure of responding on behalf of the guests, and I am particularly please to have the honour of doing so in the World Veterinary Year, marking 250 years of the profession.
I've read the list of former speakers at this event, and it appears that not only was I the first Minister to be invited I am the first to have had the pleasure three times!
Or perhaps it means I the first to accept the invitation more than once! Whatever the case I hope I am able to continue our good relationship in the years ahead.
Can I also thank John Scott for being the host for this event once again, which has become such an integral part of the farming social calendar.
John and I used to cross swords when he was his Party's spokesperson, but tonight gives me the chance to personally congratulate him on his own re-election to this Parliament to represent Ayr, but importantly to the position of Deputy Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament.
I now have to be super nice to him and curry his favour - and if I speak too long tonight he'll probably lean over and switch my micro-phone off.
I'd like to also thank Harvey Locke for his kind words and interesting speech, and congratulate him on his election too.
Harvey very much represents the BVA's heritage given that he became the forth generation of vets in his family.
Indeed, I note that he graduated from Liverpool University in 1969 - a fine a year indeed - the year I was born! Not that I want to rub that in Harvey!
I'd also like to salute your fortitude in choosing to come back to this venue. You may not know it, but just last month a granite panel came loose and almost peeled off that tower up there, where it would have crashed through the roof of the members bar.
Can I say to Harvey that if England ever gets its own Parliament, learn from our mistakes and don't build one on the cheap!
I've congratulated two people on their successful election so far tonight, and we can take that number to three.
In Nigel Miller, the NFUS have a champion for the farming industry, who also just happens to be a veterinary surgeon too.
They say farmers are tight with money, but becoming a vet just to avoid paying your veterinary bills is setting a whole new standard!
The re-election of the SNP Government, as your president so kindly referred to, provides me with the opportunity to work with our farmers, our vets and all sectors represented here tonight. An opportunity I relish.
The election results also reflect that in Scotland there is a slow revolution in terms of our nation finding its place in the world.
Change in the veterinary profession
But it strikes me that there's a slow revolution going on in the veterinary profession at the moment as well.
For instance, I am told the typical livestock vet is a man old enough to be my father - and again, I'm not looking at anyone in particular in the room when I say that.
But I am also told nowadays the typical veterinary graduate is female, urban-based, academically accomplished and more likely to be interested in companion animals than in livestock.
Indeed, one of my constituents, Kathleen Robertson, from the fine county of Moray, is now the BVA Council representative for Scotland, and is an example of the growing number of women at the top of the profession.
However, I think Kathleen is atypical to some degree, given that yes she is female, and academically accomplished, but I am not sure she would consider herself urban-based and she, I understand, is now working with the pig sector!
So the profile of our vets may be changing.
And yes, I agree with your president we have to ensure that the Government does not place obstacles in the way of future generations of young people who want to be vets or enter related professions.
And I can therefore assure you that in Scotland, despite the economic climate, we remain committed to keeping education free.
The quality of our undergraduates and graduates is a large part of the reason why, in the field of veterinary science, Scotland is doing well compared to any country.
And in the past year, three new sector-leading facilities have opened.
In Glasgow, we have the new Small Animal Hospital, a magnificent, award-winning building housing a world-class animal hospital, and the Scottish Centre for Production Animal Health and Food Safety.
At the Dick Vet School, their £42 million new teaching facility would be the jewel in the crown anywhere else, but here it sits alongside their £60 million research institute and the £3 million cancer care facility.
And the SAC may be losing a Chief Executive, but Professor McKelvey leaves them with an outstanding reputation.
And I should say of course it is now Bill McKelvey OBE - so let me add my congratulations to Bill's well-deserved recognition for his outstanding contribution to agricultural research and education.
It's worth noting that the SAC was among the first in Europe to identify bleeding calf syndrome and the apparent cause.
You cannot put a number on just how many calves were saved by their early intervention to diagnose the condition, and to get word out to vets and farmers.
Across the road at the Bush estate, under Julie Fitzpatrick, the Moredun Group continue to go from strength to strength, following the celebration of their 90th anniversary. I'm sure Julie won't mind too much if I point out that, in one day at the Highland Show last year, she picked up three awards. That's quite an achievement when you're not showing any livestock.
So we have the people and expertise, we have the ambition and, increasingly, we have the facilities.
If you stand back for a moment and think about it, by any measure these are exciting times in the veterinary profession.
And as a Government we need to take advantage of this.
It's clear vets and government are going to increasingly rely on each other in the near future.
Though we now have control of the animal health budget, we face difficult choices in coping with diminishing resources.
We will need your help to decide what to prioritise, and how best to squeeze every last drop of efficiency out of our service delivery.
Most people here this evening have been involved in one way or another in our joint efforts to use our combined, but limited, resources to further many of the causes we all support.
Especially the Animal Health Agenda, which can deliver so many benefits for our livestock sector, and in turn our veterinary profession and of course our ambition to produce food and drive our economy forward.
Our short channels of communication in Scotland allow us to do this.
The results for Scotland are impressive.
This week we were able to announce that we have regained bluetongue free status from 5th of July, and we have been officially free of TB since 2009. We are now making use of the excellence of David Logue's team at the University of Glasgow whose report will give us the evidence base to move to risk-based TB testing.
Keeping out diseases like these, and the more severe exotic disease like foot and mouth, are a point of distinction for Scotland's farming industry.
And we can make the most of these disease freedoms by moving on to tackle the diseases that we have at the moment that are so costly in economic and welfare terms.
Which is why we have an ambition to eradicate BVD.
Over the winter we provided £160,000 to subsidise screening for 3,500 herds, with the express intention of putting you on farms to talk to your clients about disease prevention and herd health.
Only This morning I was speaking to a farmer who told me that he had lost 30% of his calves this year to BVD, and he asked us to get on with eradicating this disease.
This was a consistent message from vets and farmers to both of the recent consultations on BVD, and I'm very grateful to the BVA, the BCVA and the many individual vets and practices who took the time to respond.
So, I'm delighted to confirm tonight that I intend to introduce legislation to require every breeding herd to screen annually for BVD from 1 December this year. As we have at all stages, we will work in partnership with industry, vets and scientists to ensure we have a scheme that will be successful, cost-effective and retain the confidence of farmers and vets.
BVD may be a clever and awkward virus, but in our Chief Veterinary Office, Simon Hall it met its match.
Simon's last day in the job is tomorrow, and while he may only have been with us for two years, he's already assured of being long remembered in Scotland for his courage and tenacity in making eradicating BVD such a high priority.
We all worked together to convert him to our way of seeing the world, and as he heads off into AHVLA we know that there is a corner of Simon Hall that will be forever Scotland. Thank you Simon, and good luck behind the lines!
Simon has played a huge role, along with so many in this room, to maintain and further Scotland's reputation for high health standards.
But the price of this success is vigilance, so we also need a veterinary surveillance system that makes best use of what we have, is as efficient as possible and provides early warnings on new and emerging diseases.
We look forward to John Kinnaird's report to provide us with ways of improving the system. And in improving veterinary surveillance, we will need vets to ensure that new and emerging diseases continue to be caught before they take hold.
Surveillance tells us what we need to worry about, but it is research that tells us how we should deal with the diseases that we find.
We need to continue to invest in research, so that we are at the cutting edge in discovery.
Mr President, my announcement of £3.5 million for the Centre of Excellence that you mentioned is just one part of the £50 million for rural and environmental science research this year. In spite of severe cuts in government spending we have protected this funding with no reduction in budget, and we will continue to support our world-class institutions any way we can.
And veterinary practices can ensure their own futures by demonstrating to their clients that high health and welfare standards mean increased profits.
You are not only animal doctors, you are also service providers to farms and to government.
If you add value to farm businesses through increasing calving rates, reducing mortality and improving production, then you become financially invaluable to your clients.
Livestock values may be high now, and everyone should be glad of that, but you can ensure that your services will be in demand whatever happens in the future.
And, as you know, we have agreed to investigate the devolution of the meat hygiene service and there will be opportunities for you to show us that veterinary practices can provide a service at slaughterhouses that leads to health benefits all along the production chain.
We therefore must continue to work closely together to achieve a healthy and prosperous livestock sector. But there are many other areas where we, the Government, rely on your input.
Areas such an animal welfare legislation.
The BVA in Scotland helped us to shape our thinking on hot branding and tail docking. We welcome your continued support on welfare labelling as we need a united front to put pressure on the UK government and Europe as legislation makes its way through the system. And though we have not yet reached a final view on banning wild animals in circuses, you help to remind us that this matter, though difficult, is a sincerely-held concern of many.
And as we develop our manifesto pledge to create a Scottish Animal Health Strategy, which you highlighted Mr President, we will need your guidance and expertise.
The BVA has shown leadership on a range of issues and the Scottish Government values that.
Leadership is, I believe, the reason why Scottish farming and the sectors reliant on it are in such a relatively healthy state. Leadership from government can only take us so far, it's leadership within institutions and across sectors that truly determines success.
So, to everyone here this evening, keep up your leadership.
And, let me assure you, this Scottish Government's commitment to farming, and so to the veterinary profession, is absolute.
We want the same things - healthy animals, welfare standards as high as anywhere in the world, and a successful livestock sector.
We don't need academic arguments about public good and complex economic analysis to tell us that farming and veterinary professions are inherently good for Scotland: it's good for the people, good for the food we eat and good for the land that is part of our common heritage.
As I said, this is the third time for me replying on behalf of the guests, in the 250th year of your profession.
I can't guarantee I'll be here for the next major anniversary of the veterinary profession, but as long as I have this job and you keep serving me good Scottish food, you'll have my undivided attention.
So if I can ask the guests to be upstanding while we toast our hosts: to the British Veterinary Association, for their kind hospitality, their friendship, and their contribution to the success of Scottish farming.
Slainte Mhor.