Meeting of the Parliament 03 May 2023
Today’s debate on highly protected marine areas is a rare opportunity for the Parliament to agree on something. We should all agree on standing up for coastal and fishing communities.
Last month, the First Minister outlined his priorities for Scotland. He spoke for almost half an hour. He failed to mention fishing or farming once. However, it is never too late to start listening, admit your mistakes and go back to the drawing board. In opening this debate, I appeal directly to Scottish National Party members of the Scottish Parliament representing coastal communities and to other colleagues who want Scottish fishing to thrive in the future.
Anyone who rigidly follows the party line when they know the damage that these plans could do will owe their constituents, Scotland’s fishing industry and coastal and rural communities an explanation. This is not about siding with me and my colleagues on the Conservative benches; it is about siding with the Scottish fishing industry. We should be proud of that industry, which contributes over £0.5 billion to our economy each year.
On top of the challenges that those in the industry are already facing with spatial squeeze, they are contending with a fishing ban that threatens to destroy their livelihoods for good. It is clear to them, as it is to us, that the proposed fishing ban goes too far with too little evidence. We know how that came about: on a dark day, in a dishonourable agreement that was signed in August 2021.
Màiri McAllan’s amendment shows that the Government is not only failing to listen to the concerns of our fishermen and our coastal communities but that it has turned its back on science and certainty. It makes a mockery of the consultation process by taking for granted the fact that highly protected marine areas will be designated. Popeye Ewing must have fisherman’s forearms to have ripped the document apart last night—believe me, I have tried.
The SNP amendment potentially misleads the Parliament in suggesting that the plans are in line with the European Union’s, when, in fact, Scotland has already gone over and above its marine protected area targets. It cites evidence from one area and entirely ignores contradictory evidence from another. The Bute house agreement has much to answer for. It rides roughshod over the livelihoods of hard-working fishermen, with a blatant disregard for the communities that they support and the science around the matter that we are discussing.
The arbitrary figure of 10 per cent of Scottish waters being designated as highly protected marine areas has been plucked from the sky with no scientific backing or ecological justification to underpin it. The First Minister insisted that the Government would not impose those policies on communities that do not want them. Now, the line in the SNP’s amendment has changed to refer to vehement opposition. Even if it could be defined or measured, it is evident that the Government is moving the goalposts. There has been no explanation of the problem that those proposals are trying to address or the goal that they are trying to achieve. We do not even know how effective the existing marine protected area network is in supporting and maintaining biodiversity in our waters. There has been no impact assessment of how those plans would affect our coastal communities and no feasibility study into how they could be implemented and enforced.
My colleague Murdo Fraser has just discussed a recent inquiry in which we learnt that former ministers, senior civil servants and special advisers believe that Scottish Government decision making is rushed, unclear and unstructured, as we saw with the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. We are here again. To describe the policy as rushed, unclear and unstructured would be far too generous. On the other side of the conversation, the fishing sector has taken its time to construct clear, coherent arguments against the proposals.
Nonetheless, it is important to say that I absolutely understand the need to protect our marine environment. I am certain that that is another point on which we can all agree.