THE Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA) has welcomed confirmation from Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment Richard Lochhead that the Lord Advocate is to press ahead with an appeal to the UK Supreme Court against the Court of Session's decision in Salvesen v Riddell.
In this case, Lord Gill ruled a law to protect tenant farmers was not compliant with the European Convention of Human Rights.
No date has been set for the hearing, but it is understood it should take place early this summer with a decision before the end of 2013.
The Court of Session's ruling in March 2012 (on Salvesen v Riddell) enforced a notice to quit on an agricultural tenant in a limited partnership tenancy.
This decision overturned the Land Court's original award in 2010 of security of tenure to the late Andrew Riddell, of Peaston Farm, Ormiston in East Lothian.
Commenting on the news, STFA chairman Angus McCall said: "This is a highly complex legal situation. It not only affects tenant farmers, but will inevitably impact on the law-making ability of the devolved parliament.
"There are still about 500 limited partnership tenancies remaining, some of which are subject to a notice to quit served back in 2003, and it is vitally important the position of these tenants is clarified as soon as possible so they can plan for the future."
Market round-up
ABERDEEN and Northern Marts sold 162.9 units of Single Farm Payment Entitlements at Thainstone on Friday.
The average multiplier rate, at the standard euro conversion rate of 0.79805 was 1.6, with a top multiplier of 1.7 for two lots, totalling 97.52 units, with a euro value of 342.21 each.
The Cumberland & Dumfriesshire Farmers' Mart sold 917 cast ewes and 227 cast rams in Dumfries on Friday, when all classes were easier. Ewes sold to £91 for Texels and £42 for Blackfaces, while rams peaked at £100 for Leicesters and £53.50 for Blackfaces.
There were also 1317 store hoggs forward. Top prices and averages: Texels to £55.50 and averaged £43.41; Mules £50.50 and £34.14; Suffolks £46 and £43.52; Blackfaces £44 and £26.23.
John Swan sold 43 prime bullocks in St Boswells yesterday to average 213p (-4.7p on the week), while 71 prime heifers levelled at 212.4p (-3.8p).
In the rough ring, 90 beef-type OTM cattle averaged 135p (+1.8p).
There were also some 2510 prime hoggs that averaged 143.3p (-9.1p), while 787 cast sheep levelled at £50.35 (-£6.87).
Craig Wilson sold 1222 prime hoggs at Ayr yesterday to a top of £85 per head and 187.5p per kg to average 144.9p (+8.3p).
There were also 475 cast sheep forward, with ewes selling to £95 for Texels and £49 for Blackfaces.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article