Meeting of the Parliament 09 December 2014
The SNP Government fights hard in Brussels for the whole Scottish fish sector, including fish processors and producers, and it will do so next week.
At this annual review of fishing, it is important for us to think about what could strengthen Scotland’s position to back our ministers. As a member of the Devolution (Further Powers) Committee and having had the chance to look at some of the Smith commission proposals, I suggest that we need to make sure that the respect agenda that was talked about earlier this year is applied to the way in which Scottish ministers are engaged in representing our country when their appropriate stance would help to strengthen that approach in Europe.
So,
“presuming that a devolved administration Minister can speak on behalf of the UK at a meeting of the Council of Ministers according to an agreed UK negotiating line where the devolved administration Minister holds the predominant policy interest across the UK and where the relevant lead UK Government Minister is unable to attend all or part of a meeting”
is a suggestion from the Scottish Government on how that can be achieved. It is remarkable how some people have commented on the need for that to happen all the time.
In that regard, I refer members to the moneys that we get through the European fisheries funds. The Scottish Parliament information centre has shown us that, for the 2007 to 2013 allocation, on euro per tonne of average fisheries production, Scotland is bottom among countries that have fishing fleets; on euro per tonne of average fish catch, Scotland is second bottom; and, on euro per average gross tonnage, Scotland is second bottom. Scotland’s fishing fleet has been badly let down by our not having a Scottish minister lead the negotiations in Europe, to ensure that funds apply to our area, with all its difficulties and its wild seas.
It might be a good idea to ask why the Conservatives have been prepared to say, as Jamie McGrigor did on 12 June, that it would be wrong for fishing communities in Scotland to receive more money from the European fisheries fund, and to suggest that the Scottish fishing industry is too successful to need extra support. Indeed, Ian Duncan, the recently elected Tory member of the European Parliament, was rightly criticised for claiming that Scotland’s fishing industry should not receive vital funding. He said in May:
“The funds should go to those places which are struggling. The Scottish industry is not struggling.”
I was amazed that the chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation took a similar stance during a discussion on the radio about Lord Ponsonby de Mauley. Bertie Armstrong said:
“Well, all the priorities that spread across the UK, and of course again this sounds slightly odd coming from the Scottish fishing leaders”—
or rather, Scottish fishing leader; other Scottish fishing leaders were appalled at Bertie Armstrong’s remarks. That gentleman went on to say:
“I’m thinking of Irish Sea prawns for the Northern Ireland fleet and I am thinking of the Celtic Sea haddock for the men of the Southwest”.
Yes, indeed. Our Scottish fishing leaders should be out there fighting for Scottish fishermen. We need to get off the bottom rung of the ladder of the European fisheries fund and much more.
The consultation on becoming a good food nation, which Stewart Stevenson mentioned, was discussed in more detail by Claire Baker and Cara Hilton. It is part of a long-term strategy to get people to eat better by 2025. A key theme in that unfinished business is people’s disconnectedness from their food. As the discussion document says:
“Many people in Scotland are disconnected from their food. There are considerable efforts being made in schools and elsewhere, to engage with children. Nevertheless, many people of all ages in Scotland remain profoundly unaware of how and where the food they eat—and its ingredients—are produced.”
However, on the up side, the document notes the upsurge in demand for local food and talks about
“encouraging the production and sale of locally grown food in all its shapes and sizes.”
Our inshore fleet, in particular, supplies local markets and produces much food that should be sold around Scotland. In Scrabster, Kinlochbervie, Lochinver and Ullapool there are 174 boats under 10m and 45 boats over 10m. It is up to our Government and agencies to procure fish to a greater extent and to ensure that our schoolchildren, hospital patients and prisoners, as well as the wider public, have a chance to eat the best of Scottish.
I support the motion in the name of the cabinet secretary.
16:43