Meeting of the Parliament 02 May 2023
I very much agree. I think that that was the point that Karen Adam made. Whether it is in relation to coming into the sector or people seeking to buy new vessels, that uncertainty cannot be anything other than bad and damaging. We have a combination of the blunt and arbitrary nature of the proposals, with the 10 per cent on the one hand—which, as Alasdair Allan reflected, has everybody suspecting that they might be part of—and the deadline of 2026 on the other, which, given what the Government is seeking to achieve here, is a ridiculously short timeframe. It seems entirely arbitrary and based on when the next election falls.
The timeframe is driven by the fact that the whole commitment emerges from a Bute house agreement that rides roughshod over the development of policy that has been in place over many years. The fisheries strategy from 2019 will have been an iterative process through engagement with the sector and stakeholders and through the development of evidence. What has happened in the equivalent of smoke-filled rooms in Bute house is something that is wholly arbitrary. The evidential base is just not there.
For years, the message from Government has been about local management, local control and local engagement. In my Orkney constituency, we are seeing fishers who absolutely recognise that their sector is reliant on a healthy ecosystem and a healthy marine environment. That is why they have been working with research academics and environmental groups on a range of conservation initiatives over recent years. Therefore, to have this top-down approach imposed upon them has left them absolutely baffled.
There are a few minor bright spots; the assurance from the First Minister, repeated by the cabinet secretary, that none of the proposals will be imposed on communities is welcome. However, there is no definition of what a community is or what level of opposition will be required.
I welcome Màiri McAllan’s willingness to engage with MSPs across the Parliament, and I welcome the meetings that she held with us earlier today. I do not want to breach any confidences from that meeting, but I am absolutely sure that she will have been left in no doubt about the strength of cross-party feelings on this issue.
Let us not mistake the opposition that we are seeing as an unwillingness to engage on what will genuinely safeguard the future of our fishing sector, our aquaculture sector and all those who rely on our marine environment through having it protected. However, let us not be in any doubt, either, that the Government will be able to find a way of railroading the proposals through on the basis of the Bute house agreement, because, otherwise, it will not have the numbers in Parliament.
I look forward to the remainder of this debate, and I look forward to participating in tomorrow’s. I do not think that we can give the issue enough focus at the moment, and I thank Beatrice Wishart for giving us the opportunity this evening to reflect on concerns.
17:43