Meeting of the Parliament 16 June 2015
Thank you. [Laughter.] You are very kind, Presiding Officer. I really appreciate that extra time.
I have visited several trust ports including those in Aberdeen, the Cromarty Firth, Inverness, Lerwick, Mallaig, Scrabster and Stornoway. I remember in a previous life being invited to the opening of the Mallaig harbour extension, with the Princess Royal. It was nerve-wracking because I was asked to give a 10-minute speech in front of the assembled masses. Mallaig Harbour Authority showed great initiative in having an extension built.
I also flag up the great work that is being done at Inverness harbour, where I replicated history by having a shot in the harbour boat—I hope not causing too much mayhem. It is doing great work on freight and there has been a huge expansion in its marina. An interesting point that members might not be aware of is that, for security reasons, Inverness harbour has a special arrangement for delivery of aviation oil; a dedicated underground pipeline goes all the way from Inverness harbour—a good trust port—to the old base at Kinloss and the current base at RAF Lossiemouth.
Scrabster is another fantastic harbour at which there is great development work for the renewables industry.
There are in Parliament some debates in which we all come together. This has certainly been one of them. The bill is sensible and Labour will give it our whole-hearted support. I believe 100 per cent that we should support the bill at decision time.