It is in the gift of the Scottish Government to grant urgent authorisation for emergency use of Asulox for the sake of rural livelihoods and public health—or is the First Minister content to treat rural workers as second-class citizens?

The reason why there has not been that authorisation from the Health and Safety Executive, of course, is that other Governments in the United Kingdom have not responded promptly in the way that the Scottish Government has. [

Interruption

.]

The Presiding Officer:

M embers.

The First Minister:

I advise the UK Government to ensure that it responds appropriately to the Health and Safety Executive. As the application is for use across the UK, it is for the Health and Safety Executive to communicate the decision to the applicant. As I have said, it will do so once the other Governments across the UK have responded. That is an established procedure that has been used over many years for the determination of emergency applications, and it is important that we continue to respect that process.