Meeting of the Parliament 19 February 2015
As I have indicated previously, I am happy to look at that.
If I have time, I just want to raise an issue that other members have mentioned. We need to ensure that we can protect our marine environment and that we have the power and resources to do so. Therefore, given the events of the past 24 hours, it is unacceptable that in Easter 2016—in just over a year’s time—we could have no emergency towing vessels based in Scottish waters. The contract for the one vessel that we are left with, in the Northern Isles, will run out in Easter 2016. Given that there have been three major incidents involving three large vessels in Scottish waters over the past few months alone, we should not have fewer emergency towing vessels in Scottish waters; we should have the number that we had before restored—we should have our two vessels back in Scottish waters to safeguard Scotland’s marine environment. The UK Government should get a grip and deliver that and recognise that it is leaving Scottish seas vulnerable to pollution and other damage. That is why I am writing to the UK Government asking it to ensure that it puts adequate resource into Scottish waters to protect the marine environment.
I believe that in the marine environment we can get all these ducks in a row. We will improve and take on board the comments on the draft marine plan. We will deliver protection for the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on Scotland’s seas and deliver protection for Scotland’s precious and world-famous marine environment.
I commend the motion to Parliament.