On target :

Legal and Technical

NFU Scotland – fighting for your interests

• Legal and tax advice
  • A free legal advice helpline service is provided by solicitors, Gillespie Macandrew WS, a law firm with long experience in assisting farmers, landowners and rural businesses.   The phone number is 0131 2718585.
  • We offer a free taxation advisory service operated by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP - even the phone call is free: 0800 7318201.
    
    
• NFUS Access Officer
  • With a new right of responsible access to Scotland’s countryside now in force, NFU Scotland has appointed an access officer to help farmers with everything from signposting to agreeing new pathways across farmland.   The NFUS Access Officer, Sue Hilder, can be contacted on 0131 4724107.
    
    
• Wages Board
  • Won significant changes that reduce the cost of employing seasonal workers.   Secured a change in the ‘starter’ rate from only 16 weeks to up to 26 weeks of employment.   Secured a permissible wage deduction of £4.30 for each day in a week that accommodation other than a house is provided i.e. for the provision of a caravan.
    
    
• Agricultural Holdings
  • Secure tenants now have a pre-emptive right to buy when their holding comes up for sale.   Won new rules obliging compensation for improvements when tenants quit their farms and an end to writing-down agreements.
    
    
• Suckler Cow cases taken to the Scottish Land Court
  • 213 claimants of the suckler cow premium scheme 2003 breached the 5% minimum heifer rule.   In virtually all the cases, farmers had the required replacement heifers on farm, and it is the failure to notify the local SEERAD office of a replacement that resulted in a penalty.   We have assisted member with their Stage 1 and Stage 2 appeals.   We have now lodged cases with the Scottish Land Court.   The Scottish Land Court has agreed to treat a single case as a lead case. 
    
    
• Cattle on the road
  • Provided assistance to a member who had been charged with culpable and reckless behaviour for moving cattle along a road.   The result was that the case was dismissed when it came to Court.
    
    
• Rates Bill for caravans used by seasonal workers
  • Secured a sensible valuation method for determining how a rateable value is determined for caravans occupied by seasonal workers.

May 2008

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